Farmer let murdered man be fed to lions

Times
From Jonathan Clayton in Johannesburg



A WHITE South African farmer accused of murdering a “troublesome” former black employee and feeding his body to a pride of lions admitted in court yesterday that he could have saved the man’s life.

Mark Scott-Crossley, 37, was giving evidence in a trial which has alternately riveted and revolted modern South Africa. There have been anti-white farmer demonstrations outside the courthouse in the town of Phalaborwa on the edge of the Kruger National Park each day since it started last month.

The trial, in which Mr Scott-Crossley, Richard Mathebula, 41, and Simon Mathebula, 43, who are not related, have all pleaded not guilty to murder, is the most racially-charged in South Africa’s recent history.

It has focused attention on the lives of white farmers and poor black labourers in rural areas largely unaffected by the end of apartheid.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1497644,00.html
MAYBE a chum/neighbor of Sir Mark Thatcher???

South African employer Mark Scott-Crossley, right, is led away by authorities.



The skull and bones of a man were found in an enclosure for lions.

CNN's International News edition:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/02/17/lion.eaten/

I can't find anything to lead me to believe he didn't do it. What a terrible thing to have on one's conscience. I hope to hear more about this trial. Thanks for the info.

What a sick, twisted crime. At least there will be justice, now.

Thank God for the democrats in congress in the 80s, who pushed through sanctions. Thank God for people like MI Governor Blanchard, who ensured that the state had no investments in South Africa until apartheid was done away with.

Thank God for His changing DeKlerk's heart on matters of racial equality.

Damn the Reagan administration, Jerry Falwell, and everyone who tried to protect Botha's regime.

where troublesome people are fed to pigs

More like manslaughter due to negligence.

The defendent claims that the victim was beaten up an tied to a tree by former co-workers. He could have intervened but did not.

Maybe he's lying, but who knows? That's how it's written.

Another has been aired, as well:

HOEDSPRUIT, South Africa (CNN) -- A South African farm laborer said his white employer strangled a former black employee, then held a gun to his head and forced him and two colleagues to throw his dismissed co-worker's lifeless body to lions.
(snip/...)

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/africa/02/17/lion.eaten/

There just seemed to be a disconnect between the text of the original article and the interpretation.