A farmer suspected of the lynching of a farmworker in Mpumalanga before dumping his battered body in the veld like garbage is still a free man because, according to police, a key witness has yet to point him out.
But the dead man’s cousin and the said witness, Oupa Mashegoana, disputes this version, telling Sunday World that police were yet to contact him.
He said his nightmare started on August 11, when his cousin James Phetla, known to locals as Malefole, was discovered dead in the bushes in the Maartenshoop farming area near Mashishing (formerly Lydenburg).
His legs were broken, his feet tied, and his head battered. The death was flagged in the certificate as unnatural.
Mashegoana has become suspicious of the police. “As I stated, this is a major cover-up. There does not seem to be any intention to arrest the suspects. I was never contacted to accompany the police to Nelspruit (Mbombela) to point out the suspect. I was
only told that investigations were ongoing,” he said.
Last week, this newspaper called the police and was assured the suspect would be traced and arrested in Mbombela on August 29. However, when contacted again on Wednesday, Maartenshoop station commander Warrant Officer Lusenga admitted the suspected murderer was still free.
“We went to search for the suspects, but the key witness did not come to point him out. We will continue our investigations until he is arrested,” Lusenga said.
Until then, Mashegoana said he fears for his life, concerned that his cousin’s killers will come for him to remove the only witness. “My life has already been threatened,” he says, adding that he now knows the suspects mean business.
He said in September last year, a group of white farmers arrived at the dwelling he shared with his cousin on the farm and demanded that they leave.
“They told us we would die if we refused to leave,” he recalled.
Then, on the evening of August 10, those threats turned into reality. Mashegoana alleges the farm owner, known locally by the nickname Socha, arrived with two Mozambican nationals. They dragged Phetla to the farmhouse, forced him into a garage, and locked him in.
By dawn, neighbours stumbled on a gruesome scene of blood pooled around the body.
Marks on his ankles indicated that he had been hanged upside down and then beaten to death with steel rods.
Mashegoana says he has been targeted since.
“I am living in fear. Nobody has told me what is happening with this case. I only know that my cousin was tortured until he died. Right now, I have been stopped by bakkies on the road, with the occupants telling me that I am next and that no one will do anything about it,” he told Sunday World.
“I have nowhere to run or hide. If the police are mentioning invitations that never happened, what will they tell the public if I’m found dead?”
Police, however, maintain that the investigation continues.
Provincial spokesperson Lt-Col Jabu Ndubane confirmed the first case number, 10/08/2025 was opened and then later upgraded to murder under case 15/08/2025.
“The allegations of neglect are not correct. Our detectives will not rest until the perpetrators are brought to book,” Ndubane said.
Phetla was buried on August 23 in Limpopo.
For Mashegoana, the grave is both a marker of grief and a warning of what may come.
“James had no parents, no wife, no children. I was all he had. Now I am alone, waiting for justice that feels far away,” he said.
The case resonates with wider stories of violence on South African farms, many racially charged. In Limpopo, a white farmer and two accomplices are on trial for allegedly killing Maria Makgato and Lucia Ndlovu and feeding their bodies to pigs.
Elsewhere, farmers have claimed they shot black dwellers “by mistake” after confusing them for animals.
For Mashegoana, those echoes are not distant headlines but a daily reality.
“I work outside this farm, but every day I wonder if it’s my last,” he said.
