Rudolph Christiaan van Zuydam

Rudolph Christiaan van Zuydam (1955 - 2004)

Brief overview:

Rudolph (49), was shot in the head, chest and abdomen on August 13, 2004

Extract from court appeal hearing (2009)

"On 13 August 2004 at Good’s Garage in Estcourt, the appellant, (William Muntu Mbatha) a 46 year-old man, shot and killed Mr Rudolf van Zuydam, a 49 year-old married farmer with three children. The mystery is why he did so. The appellant was until that day a perfectly respectable citizen, himself married with five children, who conducted business cutting timber on farms in the district and selling that timber. This was no hand-to-mouth existence as the appellant owned a tractor and trailer and employed people to assist him. He also owned his own bakkie and appears to have dealt with the farmers in the area as the principal source of his business. The deceased was one such farmer. He was, according to his attorney, Mr Geldenhuys, a meticulous farmer and over a period of at least a year if not longer prior to this incident arranged for the appellant to cut and remove wattles on his farm and poison stumps. He had told Mr Geldenhuys that he was pleased with the appellant’s work, which had proved more satisfactory than that of a previous contractor. The only blot on the relationship was that in the course of these activities a shed and a gate were damaged by the appellant’s employees. The damage was not extensive but also not insignificant. As will become apparent it is possible that a dispute over the obligation to compensate the deceased for this damage may have lain at the root of the incident leading to his death...."

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
  • William Muntu Mbatha (46)
• Country of origin of Perpetrator/s
• Trial/Conviction
  • The man who shot an Estcourt farmer, whom he had known, in the head, chest and abdomen was yesterday sentenced at the Pietermaritzburg High Court to 20 years’ imprisonment, says a report in The Witness.
  • In sentencing William Mbatha (49), acting Judge Raj Badal said that Mbatha had not come clean with the court and disclosed the reason for the killing. Instead, Mbatha maintained that he shot van Zuydam in self-defence, a version Badal rejected as false.
  • IN THE HIGH COURT OF SOUTH AFRICA NATAL PROVINCIAL DIVISION CASE NO.AR.461/07
  • JUDGMENT Delivered on 5 March 2009
  • In the circumstances the order I propose is that the appeal be upheld and the sentence of twenty years’ imprisonment imposed by the trial court be set aside. The case should then be remitted to the trial court to consider sentence afresh, 18 including if the appellant so desires the hearing of evidence in mitigation, in the light of this judgment. VAN DER REYDEN J./ NILES-DUNỀR J
  • https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAKZPHC/2009/2.pdf (court papers)

Additional Biographical Information:

Identity Number : 5505095087089
Official cause of death : Unnatural causes

Links to Media articles:

• https://www.geni.com/documents/view?doc_id=6000000191507301855
• https://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZAKZPHC/2009/2.html