Adrian de Wet walks free as he turns state witness

South Africa’s state prosecutor has officially withdrawn charges against one of the farm workers accused of killing two black woman and feeding their bodies to pigs.

Adrian de Wet was one of three men facing murder charges after Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were killed while allegedly looking for food on a pig farm near Polokwane in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province last year.

Their bodies were then alleged to have been given to the animals in an apparent attempt to dispose of the evidence.

Mr De Wet, 20, turned state witness when the trial started on Monday and says farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier shot and killed the two women.

Mr De Wet, a supervisor on the farm, will testify that he was under duress when he was forced to throw their bodies into the pig enclosure, according to both the prosecution and his lawyer.

William Musora, 50, another farm worker, is the third accused. He and Mr Olivier, 60, are yet to enter a plea and remain behind bars.

Mr De Wet’s lawyers say he has truthfully disclosed what transpired on the night Ms Makgato and Ms Ndlovu were killed in August 2024.

Shortly after court adjourned on Wednesday, he walked out of the court as a free man and was whisked away by his lawyers, while Ms Makgato’s brother Walter Makgato sobbed outside the court building.

He told the BBC that the release of one of the men allegedly involved in the killing of his sister means justice will not be served.

Mr De Wet will be taken into protective custody until the end of the trial.

The case has caused widespread outrage across South Africa which has exacerbated racial tension between black and white people in the country.

This is especially rife in rural areas of the country, despite the end of the racist system of apartheid 30 years ago.

Most private farmland remains in the hands of the white minority, while most farm workers are black and poorly paid, fuelling resentment among the black population, while many white farmers complain of high crime rates.

The trial is set to resume on 6 October.