Two men, one a well-known Soutpansberg farmer, were acquitted on charges of assault and malicious damage to property.

Both Mr Carl Henning (45) and Mr Thomas Mudau (34) of the farm Moddervlei were accused that they had assaulted an attorney on the farm on 5 February 2009. They appeared in the Louis Trichardt Magistrate’s Court once again last Monday.

The attorney, Mr Eddie Shirinda, claimed that Henning and Mudau had viciously attacked him when he paid a visit to the farm with Mack Nkuna, his client.

According to Shirinda, they visited the farm in person because Henning refused that Nkuna’s aunt be buried there. Shirinda claimed that Henning refused to listen to reason, despite the fact that the land claims commissioner had ordered the burial of the aunt.

It was during this meeting that things went wrong and, claimed Shirinda, he was assaulted. Shirinda said that he was so badly beaten that his wife, who is a nurse, had to treat him. His cellphone was also broken.

During the trial it came to light that the Moddervlei farm is managed by a communal property association (CPA), following a successful land claim, and that Mudau was the current chairperson of the CPA. It was, according to Henning’s testimony, the CPA who refused that the aunt be buried on Moddervlei.

Henning further testified that the land claims commissioner’s letter had never ordered that the burial take place, but merely asked the CPA’s chairperson to reconsider their decision.

Henning also denied that Shirinda was assaulted when he and his client were escorted from the farm after they refused to leave.

“Shirinda did not put up a fight, but as we talked he said he would teach us a lesson,” Henning testified.

Nkuna was also persona non grata on the farm, following a general notice that was issued on the farm that Nkuna was not allowed to set foot there. It was, according to Henning, due to the fact that Nkuna had made death threats towards himself, his father as well as to Mudau.

During Monday's court appearance, the court dismissed Shirinda's case, saying that he had not proved his case beyond a reasonable doubt. Evidence that was needed to prove the case, such as a medical certificate regarding Shirinda's injuries, as well as the broken cellphone, was not handed in to corroberate his story. As a result, the court ruled that Henning and Mudau had used reasonable force, under the circumstances, to remove Shirinda and Nkuna from the farm.