Rival factions face off at ET murder trial

Published Jan 31, 2012

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Supporters of slain right-wing leader Eugene Terre’Blanche and his alleged killers antagonised each other by singing emotionally charged songs outside the court on Monday.

Police had to be called in to defuse the situation as tensions flared near the Ventersdorp High Court, where Chris Mahlangu and a teenager are on trial.

Dressed in camouflage, a small group of AWB members descended on the small North West town at about 8am.

They set up a gazebo, stuck posters on tree trunks and hoisted their flags atop their 4x4 vehicles.

They braaied boerewors and sang Afrikaans songs like Bok van Blerk’s De la Rey, which blared from loudspeakers. The situation threatened to turn nasty when the song Bobbejaan Klim die Berg (baboon climbs the mountain) started playing.

Tshing residents took offence and retaliated by singing President Jacob Zuma’s favourite song, Umshini Wam (bring me my machinegun).

A clash between the two groups threatened, and police stepped in.

Inside the court, AWB leader Terre’Blanche’s wife of 43 years, Martie, took the witness stand and cried as she recalled her husband’s last day.

Terre’Blanche said she first knew something was amiss when her sister-in-law called to tell her she had spotted the AWB leader’s horse galloping unattended about 3km away from his farm.

She then made a few frantic calls to the man who farmworkers referred to as “Oubaas”. Then she asked her sister-in-law to check if everything was all right at the farm.

But before she could get a response, a call from a radio station came through, asking if Terre’Blanche was dead.

“I denied it… several other people also called, and I denied it.”

Her daughter prevented her from going to the farm, where the AWB leader was found lying on a single wooden bed with a panga on his chest and blood splattered on the walls and ceiling.

A crime scene technician who testified earlier on Monday said he had found one of Terre’Blanche’s teeth lying on the floor, his pants unzipped, and there was a white fluid on his genitals.

Captain Albertus Joubert was grilled over his failure to “preserve” the semen and for leaving the body to be taken to the mortuary before samples were taken for testing.

He had said earlier that he had personally taken the tooth he found on the floor to the mortuary, where the body had been taken.

“The tooth survived… so did the savanna dry bottles. So I put it to you that this was not a mere oversight.

“You deliberately refrained from preserving the evidence,” said advocate Zola Majavu, counsel for the teenager.

Joubert’s response was that he was under the impression that such samples would be taken at the mortuary.

But the fluid, which had led to widespread speculation that the AWB leader had engaged in a homosexual orgy with his farmworkers shortly before his death, was never tested.

The State’s forensic pathologist, Dr Ruweida Moorad, said the fluid was already wiped away – either on purpose or accidentally – by the time she performed the post-mortem on Terre’Blanche’s body.

Chris Mahlangu and the teenager, who turns 18 in April, are alleged to have bludgeoned Terre’Blanche to death following a dispute over wages.

They have pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.

During her testimony, Terre’Blanche testified that Mahlangu had approached her on a Thursday before her husband’s death asking for money.

“I told him I won’t give him money, so I’ll call Oubaas first. He told me Oubaas was in Pretoria,” she said.

“I called Eugene and he said I shouldn’t give him money because they knew they will only get their money after the (Easter) long weekend. I then told him ‘I can’t give you money’.”

She had spoken to Terre’Blanche later and he told her he was at a bottlestore with Mahlangu because Mahlangu wanted alcohol worth R200.

Whenever their farmworkers needed things, they would go to a supermarket and help them buy on credit.

The money would be deducted from their R600 wages.

They avoided paying their workers on Fridays as “they will drink up all the money over the weekend before buying important things”, the widow told the court.

She was expected to continue giving evidence today – the day her husband would have turned 71. - The Star

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