Cape Town - Police have arrested two men on Thursday in connection with the murder of a Stellenbosch wine farmer in 2019.
In a statement, Western Cape provincial police spokesperson André Traut said while two have been detained, one person, a women, has managed to evade arrest.
“The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the murder of 62-year-old Stefan Smit on his wine estate in Stellenbosch on June 2, 2019, led detectives to the residences of three suspects in Bellville South, Milnerton and Wynberg during the early hours of this morning (Thursday), where search warrants were executed,” Traut said.
He said the two men who were arrested are between the ages of 50 and 56 and are expected to appear in the Stellenbosch Magistrate’s Court on Friday to face a charge of murder.
“A third suspect, a 54-year-old female, managed to evade her arrest this morning (Thursday) and is being sought,” Traut said.
Smit was shot and killed in front of his wife and a family friend visiting from Switzerland on his Louiesenhof Farm when armed and masked intruders entered their home through an unlocked door on Sunday evening on June 2, 2019.
Smit was shot multiple times in the head and body.
At the time, News24 reported that Smit was looking to emigrate amid safety concerns in the country.
Louiesenhof was the subject of a land invasion that made international headlines in August 2018 when hundreds of residents of nearby Kayamandi and surrounds started erecting informal housing and shacks on the property.
The motive for his murder also did not look like a “typical farm murder” as everything was neat and in order in the home, sources told the publication.
At his memorial last year, Smit was described as a wonderful man who on weekends invited the homeless to eat on his farm as he spread the Gospel.
African News Agency (ANA)