ET killing accused preparing for verdict

20 April 2012 - 02:02 By Sapa
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Chris Mahlangu, one of the men accused of murdering AWB leader, Eugene Terre Blanche.
Chris Mahlangu, one of the men accused of murdering AWB leader, Eugene Terre Blanche.

The trial of two people accused of killing right-wing leader Eugene Terre Blanche was postponed in the Mahikeng High Court sitting in Ventersdorp yesterday.

Judge John Horn postponed judgment to May 22.

"It is probably going to be a long judgment. So prepare yourselves," he told the state and the defence.

Chris Mahlangu and a teenager are charged with beating Terre Blanche to death in his farmhouse near Ventersdorp, North West, on April 3 2010.

Both have pleaded not guilty to murder, housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances.

Mahlangu claimed that he acted in self-defence. The teenager denied involvement in the crimes.

Horn wished the youth, who turns 18 on Sunday, a happy birthday.

Earlier yesterday, the boy's lawyer, Norman Arendse, said in his closing argument that workers on Terre Blanche's farm were exploited.

"Farmworkers like the accused are generally exploited."

Terre Blanche was a well-known white supremacist who "had a well-documented history of taking the law into his own hands", he said.

He referred to the 1993 jailing of Terre Blanche for assaulting a petrol attendant .

Arendse said that the police knew that a minor worked on Terre Blanche's farm but did nothing about it.

"The dop system is alive and well," he said, referring to labourers being paid with alcohol.

Terre Blanche bought alcohol for the two accused on the day of his murder. Arendse said that, because neither of the two accused could drive, the third charge of attempted robbery was unfounded.

Mahlangu's lawyer, Kgomotso Tlouane, yesterday again brought up his client's claim that Terre Blanche had sodomised him, which prosecutor George Baloyi dismissed as "made-up stories".

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