'Game ranger' murder accused drops court wedding plan

RIGHT-WING "general" and murder accused Alex de Koker, who is on trial for the murder of teenager Raymond Buys, tried to get married in court this week.

As Buys's mother, Wilna Buys, battled with her emotions while hearing graphic details of how her son was tortured and beaten to a pulp, De Koker was planning for the future, asking the court for permission to marry his fiancée.

He dropped the idea after being told to apply to the Department of Correctional Services for permission to marry at Home Affairs.

The police officer investigating the murder refused to get involved, saying: "I'm not a wedding planner."

De Koker achieved notoriety in 2007 when the police suspected he was using a facility outside Swart-ruggens in North West to train right-wingers.

He was investigated for the death of two young men at this site, convicted for the death of Eric Calitz, 25, and given a suspended sentence.

A close associate of the late Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging leader Eugene Terre Blanche, De Koker was known for wearing a military-style uniform and insisted on being addressed as generaal by those he trained.

Now with his hair long and wearing a black suit, De Koker has been in the Vereeniging Regional Court with co-accused Michael Erasmus to face a charge of murdering 15-year-old Buys at the Echo Wild Game Rangers smallholding.

Both have pleaded not guilty, saying Buys's injuries were self-inflicted.

Buys died of severe head trauma on April 20 2011 after spending a month in hospital.

A week after Buys was admitted to hospital with injuries ranging from broken wrists and ribs to severe burn wounds, De Koker handed himself over to police. He has been in custody since.

The prosecution argues that the Echo Wild Game Rangers facility was nothing more than an excuse for De Koker to use young men to do manual labour and preach right-wing propaganda to them.

Buys's mother said this week that her son had enrolled thinking he was going to become a game ranger. She paid R20000 for the three-month course.

It was only after her son's death that she found out that De Koker was never registered with any official body and the certificates he offered were worth less than the paper he had printed them on using his home computer.

Buys's fellow trainee and friend, Gerhard Oosthuizen, testified that they were only ever ordered to perform hard labour and the closest they got to conservation was watching a DVD on scuba diving . Oosthuizen said De Koker and the 20-year-old Erasmus, who they called "colonel", made them sleep in a tent, carry rocks to build a dam and assaulted them whenever they did something wrong.

He told the court Buys was handcuffed to a bed and not allowed to use the toilet. In another incident, Buys accidentally knocked over washing powder and was ordered to eat it.

Wilna Buys sobbed as Oosthuizen described finding her son tied, naked, to a chair with a pillowcase over his head while being shocked with an electrical stun gun.

"I was scared to be friends with Raymond because when he made mistakes I was also being punished. He was beaten with a lot of things, including a spade and pitchfork," Oosthuizen told the court.

The trial will resume at the end of May.