Lutzville farmer who dragged worker with a quadbike, found guilty of murder

Martin Visser, who owns Dassieshoek farm outside Lutzville, in the Western Cape, has been found guilty of murder and two counts of assault.

The crime, so grotesque and violent in nature, has rattled the small farming community of Lutzville. It’s taken three years for justice to prevail in the murder of Adam Pieterse.

The 32-year-old Pieterse, who was fondly known as ‘Mannetjie Dukvreet’, had his life cut short when Visser assaulted him with a spade, dragged his body behind a quad bike, and buried him in a shallow grave behind his father’s farm in March 2015.

From drinking to dying

The tragedy, which unfolded three years ago, stemmed from an altercation involving money and cheap wine. According to News24, Pieterse had been drinking with friends, Patrick Klein and Frans Klaase, on the night he was attacked.

According to court revelations, Visser operated an illicit tuckshop from the garage of his farmhouse, selling wine and groceries on credit to farm labourers.

Unannounced, the 43-year-old Visser burst into the home of Mannetjie Dukvreet and began viciously assaulting him over an outstanding debt.

Paralysed by fear, Pieterse’s drinking buddies didn’t intervene. In an act of pure depravity, Visser enlisted the help of both friends in moving and, eventually burying, Pieterse’s lifeless body.

In their testimony to the court, the two friends said their lives had been threatened should they ever report the matter to law enforcement. As such, they kept quiet.

Shallow grave discovered three weeks later

For three weeks, Pieterse’s corpse lay in a shallow grave amongst the vineyards of the neighbouring farm.

Another farmworker, Hendrina “Mooimeit” Jonkers, raised the alarm after noticing a suspicious looking Visser inspecting the area which was now buzzing with flies.

Pieterse’s partially decomposed body was exhumed from the earth, and Visser was arrested. Forensic reports released during the course of the murder trial revealed the absolute horror.

Before his untimely death, the farmworker had fought for his life, as demonstrated by defensive wounds on his arms. The shovel used by Visser had cut and cracked his victim’s skull, and his genitals and perineum, the area between the anus and the scrotum, had been mutilated after his death.

His old drinking friends, Klein and Klaase, turned state witness – and the evidence against Visser became irrefutable.

Murder could have been prevented

At the Western Cape High Court hearing, held in Vredendal, Judge Nathan Erasmus handed down his judgement. Erasmus cited two earlier incidents which could have prevented the murder of Mannetjie Dukvreet.

Namely, a stabbing incident involving Kleintjie Moses, whereby he was attacked by Visser on Christmas Eve 2011.

Visser was also convicted of an earlier assault on Adam Pieterse, for which the farmer was arrested and released on R800 bail. This event took place in 2015, and led Judge Moses to question police competency, saying:

“He laid a charge and the police did nothing. I wonder if the police had acted the way they were supposed to, would we have been here today.”