Jail for SA farmer over 'baboon' murder of Zim man

Jail for SA farmer over 'baboon' murder of Zim man

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By Staff Reporter

A WHITE South African farmer who shot dead a Zimbabwean worker he claimed to have mistaken for a baboon was jailed for 20 years on Thursday.

SABC news reported that Limpopo farmer Jewell Crossberg had been found guilty of murdering Jealous Dube.

He was also found guilty of attempting to murder four other farm workers, adding four five-year terms in prison to his sentence.

The sentences are to run concurrently.

Judge Ronnie Boshielo based his judgment - which was handed down in the Pretoria High Court, sitting in Polokwane - on the fact that Crossberg did not show any remorse.

He shot Dube and did not check what had happened, even when police came to the scene, said the judge.

Crossberg's defence argued that he did show remorse as he paid Dube's funeral costs.

The court heard that Crossberg shot and killed Dube on a farm in Musina in 2004 and shot at four other employees after he had accused them of being lazy.

Boshielo dismissed Crossberg's claim that he fired shots to scare off a troop of baboons terrorising his farm.

Jan Tsiani, the COSATU secretary in Limpopo, says the sentence will help serve as a deterrent: "We are pleased by the sentence. This sentence sends a clear message to those employees who continue to kill their employees on the farms.

"There was a similar incident in Thabazimbi where a person was killed and the farmer said he thought it was a dog. This is unacceptable."

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