Northern Cape - Carlo du Plessis, who is accused of killing a farm worker he beat with a sjambok, no longer faces a murder charge after the Northern Cape High Court on Thursday found that there was insufficient evidence linking him to the crime.
Du Plessis, a well-known local businessman and miner, was facing a charge of murder and three charges of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm (GBH), after beating four workers with a sjambok on a farm, Makoenskloof near Douglas, of which he is the co-owner.
One of the workers, Mosimangape Alfred Phakedi, died on the night of August 23 / morning of August 24, 2014, as a result of head injuries, allegedly sustained during the beating by Du Plessis.
The State on Thursday closed its case against Du Plessis, after two doctors, Tebogo Charles Kanaomang and Ruwaida Moorad, who both performed post mortems on Phakedi, testified that his head injuries could not have been caused by the sjambok used by Du Plessis during the beatings and that the injuries which led to his death were more consistent with falling and hitting his head, as Du Plessis had described during his plea explanation.
Read: Roux defends man accused of killing farm worker
In the plea explanation, read out by Du Plessis’s legal representative, Advocate Barry Roux SC, Du Plessis pleaded guilty to the three assault charges, as well as to assaulting Phakedi, but not guilty to the charge of murder.
Du Plessis said that after the beatings he had chased Phakedi who ran into rocky terrain, where he fell twice.
Kanaomang, who performed a post mortem on Phakedi on August 25, 2014, testified that he could identify three tramline abrasions on the victim’s back, abdomen and elbow, which were consistent with being hit with a sjambok, but he noted that the head injuries (haemorrhaging and linear fracture on the skull) were more consistent with blunt force trauma applied to the head or falling and hitting a solid object and that the sjambok could not have caused the injuries to the skull.
Moorad, who performed a post mortem on Phakedi after his body was exhumed on September 1 2015, confirmed the head fracture and also added that the head injuries were consistent with the scenario of Phakedi falling down in a rocky terrain and hitting his head, and were not caused by a sjambok.
Roux on Thursday applied for his client to be discharged on the murder charge in terms of Section 174 of the Criminal Procedure Act, saying that there was no evidence from any of the State witnesses that Du Plessis had murdered Phakedi.
Roux added that both doctors who testified indicated that the sjambok could not have caused death.
Roux said it was common cause that Du Plessis only hit Phakedi three to four times with the sjambok and that there was also no evidence that indicated intent to murder.
Roux also applied to have the three assault GBH charges amended, saying all evidence indicated that the beatings were “moderate” and done with a “light weapon”, with no attempt to do serious bodily harm or evidence of serious injuries, and that there were not sufficient facts to elevate the charges to assault GBH from serious common assault.
The State, in turn, asked for the discharge not to be granted but concurred that it had no direct evidence that Du Plessis had done anything but hit the deceased with a sjambok, with State Prosecutor Theunis Barnard even admitting that the State was “sitting with a problem” following the evidence presented.
Barnard did say that the State was of the opinion that a “reasonable” conviction which the court could hand down was that of culpable homicide, following the fact that Du Plessis “on his own farm, must have known that Phakedi would flee following the beating and that chasing him would make him run into the rocky terrain and fall, hitting his head”.
Northern Cape High Court Judge President Frans Kgomo in response, while not formally granting the application for murder discharge, said that he “could not see how Du Plessis could be convicted of murder” and was of the opinion that murder could not be proved.
The three assault GBH charges were amended to one of attempted assault and two of common assault.
The trial will continue on Monday, where both the State and the defence will have the opportunity to make submissions on whether Du Plessis should be found guilty of culpable homicide or assault GBH, in respect of the original murder charge.
DFA