Mahikeng - The sole eyewitness in the Coligny murder case was pointed with a firearm and forced into the load base of a van, the North West High Court heard on Thursday.
"Accused two [Phillip Schutte] pointed me with a firearm and forced me to lie face down in the van. I saw the boy in the van. I followed the instruction and lie face down because I accepted that I was going to die," Bonakele Pakisi told the court.
He told the court he pleaded with Pieter Doorewaard and Phillip Schutte to kill him at a place where his body could be found.
He said he lifted his head when they van approached a farmhouse and again at the NWK silos in Coligny.
He was testifying in the murder trial of Doorewaard, 26, and Schutte, 34.
Advocate Hennie du Plessis for Doorewaard put it to Pakisi that his version of being pointed with a firearm and lying face down in the van was incorrect.
"I told the truth," Pakisi replied.
Doorewaard and Schutte are facing charges of murder, intimidation, kidnapping, unlawful possession of a firearm, unlawful possession of ammunition, theft and pointing of a firearm.
The State alleges the two killed Matlhomola Jonas Mosweu, 16, on April 20, 2017, at Scotland informal settlement in Coligny after accusing him of stealing sunflower from their employer Pieter Kasten's field at the Rietveli farm.
They claim they put Mosweu at the back of a van intending to take him to the police, but that he jumped out of the moving van and injured his neck. According to them, he died on his way to hospital.
The State further charged that the two intimidated, kidnapped and stole the cellphone of Pakisi who said he saw the incident.
Mosweu's death triggered violent community protests that left a trail of destruction in the small maize growing town and divided the town along racial lines. At least six houses and three trucks were set alight and several shops looted and damaged during the violence.
The trial continues.