News24 reports that a Lutzville farmer was found guilty on Tuesday of murdering a farmworker by beating him with a spade, dragging him with a quadbike, and then burying him behind his father's smallholding three years ago.  

He was also been found guilty of two counts of assault.  Martin Visser, who owns the Dassieshoek farm, had pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm and four charges of common assault of three other people.  Visser was arrested a year and a half after the remains of Adam Pieterse, 32, who worked on a neighbouring farm, was found in the vineyards behind his father, Chris Visser's farm in March 2015.  The cause of Pieterse’s death could not be confirmed owing to the state of the corpse.  The State's two main witnesses were Pieterse's friends Patrick Klein and Frans Klaase, who said Visser had forced them to help dispose of the body.  The trio had been drinking at Pieterse's house on the night of his murder when Visser stormed in and started hitting their friend, claiming he owed him money.  The two had not tried to intervene during the attack because they had been too afraid.  Sentencing proceedings are still underway.

• Read this report by Tammy Petersen in full at News24

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