Piet Retief: Police lied from start to finish, painted false narrative, wrongfully accuse farmers

Crime Correspondent

Piet Retief: Police lied from start to finish, painted false narrative, wrongfully accuse farmers
Piet Retief: Police lied from start to finish, painted false narrative, wrongfully accuse farmers

Multiple sources have revealed that the Police issued a false and factually incorrect statement after the incident on a farm at Dirkiesdorp, Mpumalanga where Police arrested four farmers after two males, Amos and Zenzele Coka, were shot dead on 9 April 2021.
The Police issued a statement over the weekend in which they said that four men were arrested – the Police did not even identify them as farmers – after two job seekers – the wording used by the Police – were shot dead by a farmer.

The statement of the Police also said a group of farmers held one “job seeker” hostage, something which is also not true.

The Police statement omitted many facts, like that the group of men who illegally trespassed on the farm came there to riot and commit violence.

The Police statement also omitted to mention that the same group which trespassed on the farm on Friday has been committing violence for some months, like blocking roads and extorting money from farmers who want to pass.

The Police even said the farmers shot both men, something which is factually incorrect because the one rioter shot dead his own brother who still works for the farmer whose farm was targeted for some months.

The Police statement was so factually incorrect that the conclusion unfortunately has to be drawn that the Police willfully and deliberately framed innocent men.

All mainstream media publications, including Afrikaans news sites, published the Police statement as facts without independently verifying what the Police said.

When some journalists started to ask further questions on Monday, after more facts became known, the Police spokesperson who issued the initial Police statement, Colonel Donald Mdhluli, refused to answer any further questions, hiding behind the sub judice rule.
Independent sources are now saying that the rioters assaulted two farmers so badly that they had to be hospitalized. A third farmer had to receive stitches from a private doctor whilst in detention.

One of the farmers was hit over the head with a steel pipe by a rioter. He had to undergo two operations afterwards as his skull was fractured and he had bleeding on the brain. The Police denied on Monday that any farmer was injured. So clearly another lie.

The arrested men are Danie Malan (38), Cornelius Greyling (25), Othard Klingenberg (53) and Ignatius Steynberg (31).

No rioter was arrested.

The arrested men will appear again in the Piet Retief court on 19 April 2021.

A timeline of events can now be put together, taking into account what independent witnesses are now saying. A group of 20-25 men arrived on the farm on Friday. They were clearly uninvited but the farmer agreed to meet with them. The farmer was however assaulted by the uninvited group.

Farmers detained the man who assaulted the farmer because they wanted further investigation by the Police. The rioters then ran amuck on the farm and began a full scale assault on farm workers going about their daily tasks. The attackers used steel pipes, pangas and knobkieries. The attackers told the farm workers they must leave because they will take over the jobs on the farm.

One of the farmers, Cornelius Greyling, who was later arrested by the Police, requested help from surrounding farmers via whatsapp groups at around 11:00. Farmers from the surrounding area arrived on the farm after which arguments ensued between the farmers and the aggressive rioters. The situation escalated at about 11:50 after which another message was sent out via a whatsapp group, requesting more assistance from surrounding farmers.

At about 11:54 some shots were fired. More and more farmers started to arrive to give assistance. Help from the Police never arrived although they were asked to come to the farm. Danie Malan was hit over the head with a knobkierie after which some of the farmers arrested the attacker whilst everyone was waiting for the Police to arrive.

Shortly after that one of the rioters, one of the Coka brothers, hit another farmer over the head with a steel pipe. The farmer was the one who was later operated on due to a skull fracture. The farmer collapsed on the scene. The Coka brother also picked up the farmer’s firearm, which fell, and started to shoot wildly, in the process shooting dead his own brother, a farm worker still loyal to the farm owner.

A farmer then fired at the shooter in self defence, killing him.

When the Police eventually arrived, they rounded up only the farmers, not a single rioter was arrested. The Police then concocted a false media statement despite the fact that the arrested farmers surely told the Police what happened. The Police case at this stage looks totally false and concocted.

It lays bare a deep racial bias quite evident amongst the Police officers who were supposed to independently investigate what happened.
Just one of the baffling things the Police did was to arrest and charge all 4 farmers for murder, although just one farmer shot the Coka brother – and that clearly in self defence.

When the Police start to deliberately lie and quite evidently make up facts, it surely is what it is, a frame job brought about by a deep underlying bias and racial hatred against white farmers.

Let us call it what it so obviously looks like.

It appears as if it took some time for the facts to emerge because most of the farmers involved do not belong to an organized agricultural union or interest group, so they had no media liason or spokesperson.

Read: Farmers in jail: IRR CEO expresses concerns around Piet Retief killings

Read: 4 Farmers arrested for murder: Police must play open cards about Piet Retief incident

SOURCECrime Correspondent