Johannes Christiaan Theunissen

Christiaan Theunissen (1925 – 2013)

Brief overview:

A lifetime in prison is the sentence handed out to Samito (Sam) Mbalalale (29), the Mozambican citizen who was found guilty in the Nylstroom magistrate's court for the cold-blooded murder of
farmer Johannes ("Oom Chrisjan') Theunissen (88). It was Mbalalale who pulled the trigger of the powerful .303 hunting rifle while the sleeping man was pinned down by two comrades. He had pulled the trigger. Oom Chrisjan's family members sit in the courtroom listening how his killers were sentenced: Pieter van der Walt, Hannes Theunissen and Chrisjan du Plessis.

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The Rapport story by Sonja Carstens does not say whether anything was actually robbed from Theunissen's farm... Kgomo sentenced the three men for the 17 December 2013 murder of Chrisjan Theunissen in his bed on the farm Springbokvlei outside Thabazimbi, where he had farmed with cattle since 1939. The 88-year-old Boer was pinned down by Frans Oratile Motaung, (30) and Frank Motshabi (42) while Sam Mbalalale (29) pulled the trigger of a .303 hunting rifle: a weapon which they meant to use to poach rhinos with. Kgomo said that 'South Africans must know that the courts take their security seriously. Violent crimes in any forms can no longer be tolerated. Everyone has a constitutional right to be safe - and even more so inside their own homes'. Motaung and Motshabi were sentenced to an effective 25 years each in prison - Mbalalale a life-sentence. The murdered farmer's nephew, also a farmer in the area, praised Mr Justice Kgomo's strong summary and -sentences meted out to the three killers - however he believes that 'the death sentence should be brought back'. "Personally I would feel better if I could shot them 'vrek' like they shot oom Chrisjan vrek. Every farmer has to be alert every day - knowing that he could be next. "I feel fear every time I have to climb from my bakkie to open a farm-gate or go and check a pump. I have great emphathy with the farmers in Parys who had beaten to death two suspected farm-killers. "Farmers are helpless because justice is on the side of the attackers and this makes us bitter.' South Africa scrapped the death-sentence in 1995. Oom Chrisjan Theunissen started farming in 1937 with cattle. A day before he was murdered, he had lent R520 cash to his worker Oupa Boas Moraka and to Motaung. Those two got on the phone to their comrades in Skierlik in Northwest with the message that 'Theunissen has to have a safe full of money because he was busy cleaning boreholes'. Motshabi summonsed Mbalalale from Rustenburg to help him poach rhines. Seven men then decided to rather attack Theunissen. Five were arrested: the state had to withdraw the case against Moraka because they 'did not have a prma-facie case against him' - and another comrade turned state-witness against his own mates. Kgomo said in his summary that 'Moraka had been the brain behind the attack and should have been in the dock with his comrades. Kgomo said to Mbalalale said he had 'shot dead a sleeping old man' without any regrets - purely out of greed. "You came from Mozambique to South Africa to create a better life for yourself and your people, but instead to come and do crime here. You drag the good name of every foreigner who wants to work in South Africa, through the mud. Why did you shoot Mr Theunissen? You could have hit him knock-out and plundered the homestead. "Your modus-operandi indicates that you are persons who must be removed from society.' He accepted the claim by Motaung and Motshabi that they had been 'afraid of Mbalalale - but ruled that 'this must be a lesson to your comrades that crime does not pay.' "A life was taken as a result of something you had started, and you must take the responsibility for it.' Public prosecutor Advocate Kobus Jacobs said that in 2014 and 2015 'seventy-three farm-murders were registered. The South African Police Service stopped recording seperate statistics for farm-murders and farm-attackers in 2007, said Dr Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies. -- Before 2007 the success-rate of prosecutions was 70 percent, he claimed. . Afriforum's deputy ceo Ernst Roets said according to their information, the 'successful prosecutions for farm-murders have dropped to 24%. It is being claimed that 'the SA Police Service has appointed a dedicated task-team in Limpopo to investigate farm murders in that province. The National Prosecuting Authority has also been asked to appoint a team to prosecute farm-murders specifically - similar to the team which is dedicated to prosecute rhino-poachers. Story headlined 'Straf hulle swaarder, pleit regter oor plaasmoorde' - by Sonja Carstens, Rapport: Netwerk24.com (interpreted from original Afrikaans). SCarstens@rapport.co.za

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
  • Judge Frans Kgomo said in one of the most strongly-worded sentences for farm-killers, that 'attackers who murder farmers and farm-workers, must get higher sentences 'because even the strongest sentences presently allowed, does not deter them'.

Additional Biographical Information:

Links to Media articles:

• https://archive.is/64DFc
• http://archive.fo/40A6h
• https://web.archive.org/web/20170212081815/http://www.censorbugbear...
• http://archive.vn/mnNps
• Reference: MyHeritage Family Trees - SmartCopy: Jul 1 2019, 15:28:33 UTC