Partner of KZN farmer accused of farmhand’s murder attacked

The partner of a KwaZulu-Natal Midlands farmer accused of murder was attacked on their Cramond property on Thursday afternoon.

Marie Louise Vucher had been taking an afternoon nap when she awoke to find several men in her bedroom who began beating her.

Her 65-year-old partner‚ Edward Philip Solomon‚ remains in police custody after allegedly shooting one of his employees during a fight with mourners at a funeral at the weekend.

Police spokesperson Captain Gay Ebrahim said it was not possible to say whether the motive for the attack was robbery.

“Just after 3pm she [Vucher] was taking a nap in her bedroom when she was confronted by two or three men. She was disoriented so she was unable to give us a solid number‚” Ebrahim said. “They started beating her very severely. We cannot say whether or not this was a robbery because the house is in disarray‚ but her cell phone is missing. She has severe head and facial trauma and was taken to hospital‚” she said.

The attack comes after Philip Solomon appeared in the New Hanover Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday for the murder of farmhand Mothiwa Ngubane and the attempted murder of Mondli Lembethe.

Longstanding tensions between Solomon and the Lembethe family culminated in the bloody shooting‚ which saw him allegedly turning his gun on a group of mourners at a funeral.

Ngubane is understood to have intervened when Solomon allegedly raised the barrel of his gun and trained it on Lembethe‚ who had been busy digging a grave to bury a family member.

In the fight for control of the weapon‚ Ngubane was felled by gunfire.

The murder has exposed racial fault-lines in the agrarian community‚ drawing back the veil on allegations of historical prejudice and violence.

Tensions now continue to rise with the attack on Solomon’s wife.

The farmer is expected to apply for bail on Tuesday.