Jacobus Gustav van Aardt

Gustav van Aart (1923 - 1990)

Brief overview:

Gustav (68), who lived alone on his farm Fleetwood, in Wepener, Free State, was kidnapped, and found murdered on another farm. He was tied up and had been shot in the face with a shotgun.

The perpetrator, Thabang Sempe (34), stole Gustav's vehicle, as well as a large quantity of goods, and three rifles and a shotgun, to the value of R20 000. Sempe fled to Lesotho.

Brief Biography:

• Other Victims/Family
• Funeral/Memorial
• The Farm/Smallholding
• The Region (Land disputes, other incidents etc.)

Attack Details:

• Date and time of attack
• Weapons
• Items Stolen
• Investigative officer/SAPS Case No:
• Torture, Gratuitous violence
• Indications of Hate Crime? Threats etc.

Perpetrator details:

• Number and Descriptions
• Arrests
• Name/s and age/s of Perpetrator/s
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
• Trial/Conviction

Additional Biographical Information:

EXTRACT FROM THE COMMITTEE OF INQUIRY FARM ATTACKS (2003):

CASE STUDIES 1: Van Aart: 1991-10-02

"Gustav van Aart lived alone on the farm Fleetwood in the district of Wepener in the Free State. On 2 October 1991 he arrived back on the farm at about 18:00. After parking his vehicle in the garage he went to his house. The next morning when the domestic worker arrived she found the doors locked and the curtains drawn. The police was summoned and it was discovered that Van Aart’s vehicle was gone, as well as a large quantity of goods, including three rifles and a shotgun, to the value of R20 000. The body of Van Aart was discovered on another farm. His hands were tied behind his back and he had been shot in the face with a shotgun.

His attacker, Thabang Sempe (34) fled to Lesotho. He was arrested in Kroonstad on 7 February 2000, after he had returned to South Africa. He was prosecuted in the Free State High Court on 28 August 2000 and convicted of murder, housebreaking and robbery with aggravating circumstances, for which he received a prison sentence of twenty years, and kidnapping, for which he received five years.

The circumstances surrounding the events were described by the accused himself in a written statement handed in by him at his trial. According to the statement he was hitchhiking a few days before the event when the deceased picked him up with his truck. He sat in front with the deceased because it was raining. They started talking and the deceased made disparaging remarks about the ANC, saying that if Mandela should win the election the ‘kaffers’ would be in trouble. They spoke in Sesotho.

He then met up with one Moseli and asked him to accompany him to Van Aart’s farm so that he could take revenge. That night they broke into the house through an open back window. They found Van Aart asleep, overpowered him and tied his hands behind his back. He argued with Moseli, because the latter wanted to take various articles, whereas he himself only wanted to kill Van Aart out of revenge. Moseli loaded a large quantity of goods on the pick-up. They put Van Aart inside and drove with him to a clump of trees. There Van Aart was told to get out. Moseli had the shotgun with two cartridges, but he, Sempe, took out one because they were in the ‘freedom struggle’ and had been told to use only one bullet on a person. Moseli then shot Van Aart in the face. He stressed that in the spirit of the ‘struggle’ he wanted to take revenge on Van Aart for his contemptuous attitude and for calling him a ‘kaffer’.

Comments:

- This was the oldest case investigated by the Committee, dating from 1991. Because the accused had fled to Lesotho, the case was only tried in 2000.

- It is one of the very few cases where politics or racial sentiments overtly played a role, although there was also an element of revenge for specific things that the victim had allegedly said. It is difficult to reconcile this with a farmer who gave one of the attackers a lift and told him to sit in front with him in the truck because it was raining.

- The deceased was killed execution style and in cold blood. At the same time a large quantity of goods were robbed. In fact, it is quite a noteworthy feature of almost all cases where the accused alleges that he acted because of some political motive, that large quantities of goods were also stolen. There is a likelihood that in many cases the accused tries to give the case a political or racial overtone in order to evoke sympathy.

- Although this case was not typical of farm attacks, it received much publicity for obvious reasons. It is exactly the type of case that is the source of the perception that farm attacks in general are politically inspired. "

Links to Media articles:

• https://africacheck.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/Final-Report-Com...

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• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Oct 7 2020, 11:16:57 UTC

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• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Nov 26 2017, 20:10:19 UTC
• https://graves-at-eggsa.org/main.php?g2_itemId=3536191