SOUTH AFRICA: A white South African farmer and three employees have been accused of beating an ex-worker and throwing him to a pit of lions.
Mark Crossley (35) and three black employees were arrested on Monday after police found a human skull and a piece of leg in a lion enclosure 15km from his farm. They were charged with murder and refused bail in court yesterday.
Police believe the remains belong to Nelson Shisane (38), a former employee on the farm near Hoedspruit, about 350km north-east of Johannesburg.
According to witnesses, Mr Shisane was assaulted, tied, thrown into the back of a pick-up truck and driven to a nearby lion-breeding project, where he was thrown over the fence.
"The farmer and three workers allegedly watched as a lion mauled him, before it dragged him into the bush," said Supt Ronel Otto.
Mr Shisane had been dismissed from the Crossley farm before Christmas and had apparently returned to collect his belongings.
The owner of the Mokwalo White Lion project, near the famed Kruger National Park, said he was unaware such a killing had taken place on his property.
The case may inflame simmering racial tensions in the South African countryside, where there have been several high-profile cases of white brutality towards black farm workers in recent years.
Many white farming families, in turn, have been victim of vicious robberies and, in some cases, gang rape.
Mr Shisane's remains have been sent to Pretoria for forensic examination, and a 10-man team of police investigators assigned to the case.
The Labour Minister, Mr Membathisi Mdladlana, was "shocked and angry" at the reports, a spokesman said, and had sent a team of labour investigators to the site. The Congress of South African Trade Unions called for a "massive" farm safety campaign.
The case comes a day after President Thabo Mbeki announced elections for April 14th. High violent crime rates, fuelled by huge income disparities are already being highlighted by the opposition as a failing of the ruling ANC party's decade in power. Nevertheless, the ANC is expected to win the election.