This, as Magistrate Deon van Rooyen is expected to hand down a much-anticipated judgment in the bail hearing of two men who stand accused of killing 21-year-old farm manager Brendin Horner.

First accused, Sekwetje Mahlamba (32), who was earlier granted R1000 bail on a pending stock theft charge, and second accused Sekola Matlaletsa (44), are applying for bail.

Leading Investigating Officer (IO) and state witness, Captain Pieter Myburgh, previously urged the court to deny bail and remand the two in custody until the state have the much-needed scientific evidence available, allegedly implicating the two.

However, the defence for Mahlamba - Advocate Josephe Kgoelenya - and Matlaletsa's representative - Advocate Machini Motloung - branded Myburgh's testimony as hopeless and desperate.

The two accused last week told Magistrate Van Rooyen that they do not know each other and denied that they are involved in the brutal killing of Horner - whose autopsy has shown that he was stabbed in his head, shoulders, and hands.

According to Myburgh (who was the evidence leader in court) the result further showed that the deceased died as a result of strangulation.

Evidence such as blood-stained clothes and a bloodied knife, among others, were confiscated by the state and sent for testing. The state is yet to retrieve the results.

The men have also been implicated by at least two witnesses, with one of these witnesses alleging that they heard the two suspects bragging about how they stabbed a white man who gave them problems.

The other witness said they saw the suspects and an unidentified man descending down from the mountains in the direction of where the attack on Horner took place.

The defence meanwhile alleges the state's case is non-existent without tangible evidence.

OFM News