Kimberley - The murder trial of businessman Carlo Andrea du Plessis, who is represented by Advocate Barry Roux SC, got under way in the Northern Cape High Court on Wednesday.
Du Plessis, a well-known local businessman and miner, is facing a charge of murder and three charges of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm (GBH), after allegedly beating four workers with a sjambok on a farm of which he is the co-owner.
The alleged incident happened on Makoenskloof near Douglas on August 23, 2014.
One of the workers, Mosimangape Alfred Phakedi, died shortly afterwards, allegedly as a result of injuries sustained during the beating by Du Plessis.
The State alleges that the four victims, Phakedi, Willem Abrahams, Andre Afrikaner and Franklin Hoogstander, were in a house on the farm where Abrahams and his wife lived, when Du Plessis arrived.
He then allegedly started assaulting the four victims with a sjambok, but Abrahams and Afrikaner managed to run away.
It is further alleged that Du Plessis repeatedly hit Phakedi over his body and head with the sjambok.
He then chased the workers, together with Abrahams’s wife, Katjie Pieterse, off the property.
Du Plessis is being represented by Roux, who became a household name when he defended Oscar Pistorius.
Roux on Wednesday read into the court record Du Plessis’s plea explanation, indicating that his client was pleading guilty to assaulting the deceased, as well as Abrahams and Afrikaner.
He also pleaded guilty to the attempted assault of Hoogstander, but pleaded not guilty to the murder of Phakedi.
According to the plea explanation, Du Plessis received several calls from Phakedi during the early hours of August 23, informing him that there was “fighting” at the house and later that there was a “problem” with the pivot at the farm.
This led Du Plessis to believe that there was a problem with the electricity supply and he went to GWK to buy a circuit breaker.
At GWK Du Plessis saw sjamboks in the display area and “decided to buy one, as they needed it on the farm when moving cattle”.
The plea explanation further reads: “I did not buy the sjambok with the preconceived idea to assault anyone, as there was no reason for me to want to assault the deceased or anyone else.”
Du Plessis then apparently went to the dam on the farm, where he found that the tap, supplying water from the dam to the pump, was closed and he opened the tap.
“I saw that the water trough of the animals was dry and must have been dry for several days. The deceased was not at the dam and I decided to go to his house and look for him, as it was a working day.
“I arrived at the house and found the deceased with Willem and Petrus. At that point I became more upset, as I was thinking of the animals without water and the employees sitting at home when they were supposed to be working.
“I also believe they had been drinking the previous night, which explained the deceased’s inability to open the tap and him staying at home,” Du Plessis’ statement read.
It added that he turned back and fetched the sjambok.
“I did so as I had in my upset state of mind taken the irrational and inexcusable decision to fetch the sjambok to give the deceased a hiding. I had no justification to act as aforesaid and I had no right to give him a hiding.”
Du Plessis also indicated that during the process of hitting the three complainants, the deceased ran away, into the bushes, and fell twice in rocky terrain while being chased by Du Plessis, adding that he could not have hit the deceased more than four times in total.
According to the plea explanation, Du Plessis then went back to the house and ordered Phakedi and Katjie Pieterse to pack their belongings.
“After they had done so, they put their belongings on the back of the bakkie and both of them got on to the bakkie. I then took them to the main road where they disembarked.
“On the way to the main road I phoned an employee, Ephraim Mhlotswane, to pick them up and take then to Douglas, where they came from. At the time (of dropping them off) I did not see any signs that he was or could be seriously injured, nor did he complain of any injuries or symptoms,” Roux stated on behalf of Du Plessis.
The plea explanation added that a requested second independent post mortem, performed by Dr Perumal, would confirm that “the cause of death was consistent with aspiration pneumonitis, following blunt force trauma”, and that the “head injury had no relevance to the sjambok”, with Dr Perumal of the view that his “falling down (in the bushes) could have caused a head injury”.
Katjie Pieterse and Willem Abrahams both took to the stand on Wednesday and gave their versions of events as well as what happened after Du Plessis dropped them off at the side of the road.
Both testified that he was still able to move around and speak when they were dropped off, but started complaining of a headache soon afterwards.
They also said that Phakedi had to be lifted onto the bakkie of Ephraim, who came to pick them up, and again had to be lifted off when they arrived at the home.
They also apparently carried him to a bed in the shanty but both said that he was still talking, even indicating to Pieterse that he did not want to eat and that she should keep the chicken she prepared for supper until the next morning.
However, the couple found that Phakedi had died during the night, when they woke up on the morning of August 24.
The couple, as well as Andre Afrikaner, who was on Wednesday also called to the stand as a State witness, all concurred that Du Plessis was a “good employer” who acted out of character on the morning of the incident.
The trial is expected to continue on Thursday in front of Northern Cape High Court Judge President Frans Kgomo, with Theunis Barnard representing the State.
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