TWO men formerly employed by a Gobabis district farming couple whose burnt bodies were found in their fire-gutted house in January this year have made a first court appearance on two counts of murder and other charges.
Nearly seven months after the suspected murder of their ex-employers, Bernadus Afrikaner (30) and Salathuel Unaeb (40) appeared in the Gobabis Magistrate’s Court on two charges of murder and further counts of arson, robbery with aggravating circumstances and defeating or obstructing the course of justice on Friday.
The charges are connected to the deaths of farming couple Armin and Brunhild Riedel, aged 68 and 66 respectively, who were allegedly murdered before their farmhouse was set alight on 20 January.
The couple’s remains were found in their house on the farm Grunfeld, situated about 17 kilometres east of Gobabis, after the house had been destroyed by fire during the evening of 20 January.
Afrikaner and Unaeb were arrested and charged on Thursday last week, according to the court record of their case.
They made their first court appearance before magistrate Esme Molefe on Friday, and their case was postponed to 27 September for further police investigations to be carried out. Both men were ordered to remain in police custody in the meantime.
A son of the late couple, Manfred Riedel, told on Saturday that both accused were employed by his parents at the time of their deaths. He said Afrikaner was employed by his parents for about six months before they died, while Unaeb had worked for them for about a month-and-a-half.
Riedel said an autopsy done on his father’s remains showed that he had a gunshot injury to his head. The cause of his mother’s death could not be established when a post-mortem was done on her burnt remains, he said.
Afrikaner and Unaeb were retrenched following his parents’ deaths, Riedel also recounted.
Afrikaner soon clashed with the law, though, when he was arrested on a charge of stock theft after he had allegedly returned to the couple’s farm to steal five goats.
Riedel said Afrikaner was released on bail following that arrest, but was again arrested in February, after he had been caught trying to sell a pistol that belonged to the late Brunhild Riedel. He has been kept in police custody since that arrest, Riedel said.
He added that his family appreciated the dedication with which the police officer investigating the case, detective chief inspector Gawie Jantjies, has been working on the matter.
