aria
Former Moderator
- Joined
- Dec 4, 1977
- Posts
- 39,546
This story is gruesome and truly bizarre. In an creepy echo of apartheid feeling, the white farmer (who raised rare albino lions) fed a black worker (who had apparently reported bad working conditions) to his albino lions. The worker was hacked by machetes but still alive when he was fed to the beasts.
This has been covered by all the major papers, but I had to search around to get the most vivid account -here by a South African paper:
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White farmer fed black worker to lions
'Scott-Crossley had a grudge against Chisale'
By Carol Hills
Nelson Chisale's killers were convicted of his murder on Thursday. They had viciously beaten him with pangas and then fed him, alive, to lions at Mokwalo White Lion Project, near Hoedspruit.
Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, and Simon Mathebula, 41, were each found guilty on a charge of murder. Both had pleaded not guilty.
Judge George Maluleke, who heard the case with assessors Kate Choshi and Elphus Seemela, also decided that the testimony of a fourth accused who turned state witness, Robert Mnisi, was sufficiently truthful to indemnify him from prosecution.
He has pleaded not guilty, but has not yet testified
A final accused, Richard Mathebula, 41, will stand trial separately, after he recovers from suspected TB, for which he has been admitted to hospital. He has pleaded not guilty, but has not yet testified.
All that was found of Chisale in the encampment was a shaft of long bones, a skull with no mandible, fragments of rib, vertebrae, pelvic girdle and a finger, as well as his shredded shirt and ripped pair of trousers.
His remains were buried at his birthplace at Maboloka village, near Brits, in March 2004.
Scott-Crossley masterminded the murder of Chisale and then helped feed him to a pride of five lions held captive in an encampment in Hoedspruit, Maluleke said.
His verdict took almost six hours to deliver. Six hours was also the length of time that Chisale was held captive on the day of his death - tied up and under the guard of Simon Mathebula, who Maluleke said had acted in concert with Scott-Crossley in killing him.
CAPTION: Mark Scott-Crossley
"The evidence of guilt against Scott-Crossley is overwhelming," Maluleke ruled.
Finding him "untruthful", Maluleke ruled that he had held a grudge against Chisale after the former farmworker complained about him to the department of labour.
Chisale also brought a malicious damage case against Scott-Crossley with the police for burning his property after he had been dismissed.
Scott-Crossley even went as far as banning Chisale from his game farm. This "bad blood" between them spilled over on the fateful day of Chisale's murder when he arrived at the farm only to be detained by Simon Mathebula and a co-accused, Richard "Doctor" Mathebula.
Maluleke held that Scott-Crossley's workers "displayed such deference and timidity" to him, treating him with such reverence even after their arrest, that he "could not see how any one of them could ever even try to threaten" him - the reason Scott-Crossley proffered for his involvement in the disposal of Chisale's corpse.
At least two of them testified it was, instead, Scott-Crossley who had threatened them with violence or death to compel them to comply with his instructions to load the injured Chisale on to his bakkie, to throw him to the lions and then not to speak to anybody about what they had done.
The investigating officer, Senior Superintendent David Hlatshwayo, told the court Scott-Crossley had come across to him as a "cheeky person". Over and above this was "the incident relating to when he showed improper conduct by angrily and aggressively shouting to the court".
Maluleke found Scott-Crossley's behaviour "highly relevant" with regard to whether there was possibility he could have made the threats, ruling that at various stages the workers were "intimidated and threatened and fearful of Scott-Crossley".
Maluleke, however, noted that his workers had ample opportunity to stop what was happening to Chisale.
"They had the opportunity of at least six hours (when Scott-Crossley was not on the farm) to do something. They all failed to even try to report the incident to the police at any time."
"They did not assist Chisale. They did not seek help," he found.
The state had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mathebula had been instructed to arrest Chisale and keep him on the game farm.
Simon Mathebula had been "like a whistleblower" in staying at the farmhouse to watch over Scott-Crossley's son while the others fed Chisale to the lions and had even washed Chisale's blood off the bakkie the next day.
Maluleke found him guilty of the murder on the basis of having acted in common purpose with Scott-Crossley.
Maluleke has postponed the matter until August 10 for sentencing.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Pretoria News on April 29, 2005
CAPTION: Guilty: Mark Scott-Crossley shaves as he waits inside the Pharaborwa holding cells. Photo: Bathini Mbatha
This has been covered by all the major papers, but I had to search around to get the most vivid account -here by a South African paper:
-------------------
White farmer fed black worker to lions
'Scott-Crossley had a grudge against Chisale'
By Carol Hills
Nelson Chisale's killers were convicted of his murder on Thursday. They had viciously beaten him with pangas and then fed him, alive, to lions at Mokwalo White Lion Project, near Hoedspruit.
Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, and Simon Mathebula, 41, were each found guilty on a charge of murder. Both had pleaded not guilty.
Judge George Maluleke, who heard the case with assessors Kate Choshi and Elphus Seemela, also decided that the testimony of a fourth accused who turned state witness, Robert Mnisi, was sufficiently truthful to indemnify him from prosecution.
He has pleaded not guilty, but has not yet testified
A final accused, Richard Mathebula, 41, will stand trial separately, after he recovers from suspected TB, for which he has been admitted to hospital. He has pleaded not guilty, but has not yet testified.
All that was found of Chisale in the encampment was a shaft of long bones, a skull with no mandible, fragments of rib, vertebrae, pelvic girdle and a finger, as well as his shredded shirt and ripped pair of trousers.
His remains were buried at his birthplace at Maboloka village, near Brits, in March 2004.
Scott-Crossley masterminded the murder of Chisale and then helped feed him to a pride of five lions held captive in an encampment in Hoedspruit, Maluleke said.
His verdict took almost six hours to deliver. Six hours was also the length of time that Chisale was held captive on the day of his death - tied up and under the guard of Simon Mathebula, who Maluleke said had acted in concert with Scott-Crossley in killing him.
CAPTION: Mark Scott-Crossley
"The evidence of guilt against Scott-Crossley is overwhelming," Maluleke ruled.
Finding him "untruthful", Maluleke ruled that he had held a grudge against Chisale after the former farmworker complained about him to the department of labour.
Chisale also brought a malicious damage case against Scott-Crossley with the police for burning his property after he had been dismissed.
Scott-Crossley even went as far as banning Chisale from his game farm. This "bad blood" between them spilled over on the fateful day of Chisale's murder when he arrived at the farm only to be detained by Simon Mathebula and a co-accused, Richard "Doctor" Mathebula.
Maluleke held that Scott-Crossley's workers "displayed such deference and timidity" to him, treating him with such reverence even after their arrest, that he "could not see how any one of them could ever even try to threaten" him - the reason Scott-Crossley proffered for his involvement in the disposal of Chisale's corpse.
At least two of them testified it was, instead, Scott-Crossley who had threatened them with violence or death to compel them to comply with his instructions to load the injured Chisale on to his bakkie, to throw him to the lions and then not to speak to anybody about what they had done.
The investigating officer, Senior Superintendent David Hlatshwayo, told the court Scott-Crossley had come across to him as a "cheeky person". Over and above this was "the incident relating to when he showed improper conduct by angrily and aggressively shouting to the court".
Maluleke found Scott-Crossley's behaviour "highly relevant" with regard to whether there was possibility he could have made the threats, ruling that at various stages the workers were "intimidated and threatened and fearful of Scott-Crossley".
Maluleke, however, noted that his workers had ample opportunity to stop what was happening to Chisale.
"They had the opportunity of at least six hours (when Scott-Crossley was not on the farm) to do something. They all failed to even try to report the incident to the police at any time."
"They did not assist Chisale. They did not seek help," he found.
The state had proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Mathebula had been instructed to arrest Chisale and keep him on the game farm.
Simon Mathebula had been "like a whistleblower" in staying at the farmhouse to watch over Scott-Crossley's son while the others fed Chisale to the lions and had even washed Chisale's blood off the bakkie the next day.
Maluleke found him guilty of the murder on the basis of having acted in common purpose with Scott-Crossley.
Maluleke has postponed the matter until August 10 for sentencing.
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Pretoria News on April 29, 2005
CAPTION: Guilty: Mark Scott-Crossley shaves as he waits inside the Pharaborwa holding cells. Photo: Bathini Mbatha
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