Overview

• Prosecutors told the Polokwane High Court the killings were planned and carried out with a common purpose, which could mandate life sentences if guilt is proven, the judge noted.
• Accused farmer Zachariah Olivier and employee William Musora pleaded not guilty to murder, attempted murder, possession of an unlicensed firearm and employing an undocumented worker.
• Musora, a Zimbabwean national, also faces an Immigration Act charge for being in South Africa illegally.
• In an affidavit, Olivier denied intent to kill, saying he fired warning shots at trespassers, later moved the bodies to a pigsty, cut up two rifles and called police the following day.
• Charges against farmworker De Wet were withdrawn after he became a state witness, and the family of victim Maria Makgato expressed grief and hardship following her death.