A South African farm worker has described to a court how he was forced by his boss to feed the bodies of two black women to pigs in an attempt to hide evidence after they were shot.
Adrian De Wet, 21, said he was told to throw the bodies inside a pig enclosure, explaining that when pigs are hungry enough, they'll eat anything.
Mr De Wet admitted opening fire on the two women with his boss - farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier - before he ordered him to help dispose of their bodies.
Mr Olivier and another man, William Musora, are accused of murder after Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were killed while allegedly looking for food on a farm near Polokwane in South Africa's northern Limpopo province last year.
Farm supervisor Mr De Wet was also previously accused of murder, but charges were dropped by the prosecution when he turned state witness. He had argued he was under duress when he was forced to throw the bodies into the pig enclosure.
On Thursday, Mr De Wet told Polokwane High Court that he and Mr Olivier, 60, armed themselves with hunting rifles and waited for trespassers to enter the farm on the night of 17 August 2024.
After waiting for 30 minutes, they heard voices approaching and opened fire, hearing a person scream and later discovering a body.
They returned the next morning to find it was a woman's body and were later involved in disposing of another body found nearby.
Mr De Wet testified that the pigs had bitten off large chunks of flesh, indicating the gruesome reality of their actions, as the court case gained widespread media attention and public outrage.
This case has significantly aggravated racial tensions in South Africa, reinforcing long-standing grievances between black farmworkers and white landowners in a country still grappling with the legacy of apartheid.
