Three men on trial for the brutal murder of Dumisani Phakathi

IOL News

24-07-2025

Jaco Kemp, Louis Coetzee, and Gert van der Westhuizen were in the dock of the Pretoria High Court, facing a charge of murder after an innocent man seeking water was beaten to death.
Image: Zelda Venter
If it were not for an early morning stop-and-search operation by the police on the R511 towards Brits, North West, the truth of what happened to a farm worker who was allegedly murdered would have probably never been discovered.
The police noticed the bakkie they had stopped with two occupants in was loaded with black garbage bags. They then saw legs sticking out from under the bags, covered with blood. It was then that they discovered the lifeless body of Dumisani Phakathi, with his head covered by plastic.
Phakathi was allegedly murdered simply because he walked to a nearby chicken farm with a plastic container in his hand to collect water.
The three men accused of assaulting and killing him earlier pleaded not guilty to murder in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. While it was confirmed through an autopsy that he had been beaten to death, the three accused pointed fingers at each other as the culprits.
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The deceased came to fetch water at the farm outside Brits on September 16, 2023, when he was allegedly attacked by the three accused - Jaco Kemp, Louis Coetzee, and Gert van der Westhuizen - who were busy having a braai.
They are pointing fingers at each other as being the culprit. Kemp, who blamed his co-accused Van der Westhuizen for the deadly assault, told the court that Phakathi did not pose a threat when he came to fetch water on the farm. Van der Westhuizen blamed Kemp and Coetzee for the assault, while the latter in turn blamed his two co-accused.
Coetzee earlier testified in tears that Van der Westhuizen noticed the deceased at the gate to the farm. Coetzee said he was told to go and find out what the man wanted. Phakathi explained that he simply wanted to fetch some water.
According to Coetzee, Van der Westhuizen was there within seconds, joined by Kemp. He said while Kemp repeatedly bashed the deceased with his head, Van der Westhuizen kept on punching Phakathi.
He testified that the man was assaulted from the small gate on the farm to the main gate. By the time they reached the main gate, he was unconscious. He was, however, later further assaulted in a storeroom on the farm until he eventually died from the blows to his head.
Kemp, during his testimony, accused Van der Westhuizen of kicking the man and assaulting him with clenched fists. While distancing himself from the murder, Kemp did admit that after Phakathi died, he bound his head in plastic and bound his feet before loading the body on the bakkie.
They drove along the Brits-Thabazimbi Road when the police stopped them in the early hours of the next morning, when the body was discovered under the rubbish on the back of the bakkie.
Coetzee, meanwhile, testified that he had nothing to do with the murder and that he simply stood by when the deceased was assaulted.
Asked why he did nothing to assist the helpless man, why he did not call for assistance, Coetzee testified that he was afraid of his co-accused.
Both the State and the defence had, meanwhile, closed their cases. The case was on Thursday postponed to July 29 for final arguments before judgment is delivered.
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