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Free State Police have launched a manhunt for the suspect (s) who attacked and murdered a manager at De Rots Farm in Paul Roux, west of Bethlehem.
Free State Police spokesman Brig Motantsi Makhele said police found the body of 21-year-old Brendin Horner tied to a post in an open space on the farm around 6 a.m. Friday.
Makhele said police had received a call from neighboring farmers about an attack at De Rots Farm.
“Upon arrival, the police found Horner, who was pronounced dead at the scene with injuries to the head and face and tied with a rope around his neck to a post. A knife was seized at the scene, ”Makhele said.
“His bloodstained Toyota Hilux was later found abandoned near the Duikfontein farm in Paul Roux.”
He said Horner was attacked and brutally killed by an unknown number of attackers after he left his father’s farm to return home at 7 p.m. Thursday. At 10 p.m. the family went out to look for him because he had not arrived home. They couldn’t find him and couldn’t locate him on his phone.
The motive for the murder is unknown. A murder case has been registered with the Paul Roux police.
Horner and his father Robbie worked for Gilly Scheepers on the Bloukruin farm, near Paul Roux.
Scheepers said: “Horner worked for me for a year before he was brutally murdered. This is a delicate matter and we do not want to comment further ”.
Scheepers told TimesLIVE that Horner’s father had requested privacy.
‘A clear message for all farmers’
Agricultural strategist Dr. Jaco De Villiers has described the latest murder as part of a “war against food production” in the country.
De Villiers said Horner’s murder was a massacre.
“How do you murder someone and hang them on a pole for all to see? This was a clear message to all farmers, ”said an angry De Villiers.
He warned that if farm killings are not stopped, farmers could begin to retaliate and this could lead to more bloodshed.
