Eastern Cape farmer jailed for six years for kidnapping intruder, shooting him

HE KILLED an armed intruder in self-defence, but the decision to dump the body, kidnap the second attacker and shoot him on a remote road has landed a Eastern Cape farmer in prison for six years.

- BRANDON NEL

Stephanus Samson, 58, was sentenced in the Gqeberha High Court earlier this month after being convicted of kidnapping, attempted murder and defeating the ends of justice.

He had earlier been acquitted of murder after the court accepted that he shot and killed Shalton Bruintjies inside his home during a sudden confrontation in which the intruder was armed with a panga and a knife.

Judge Avinash Govindjee said the fatal shooting was lawful self-defence, but everything Samson did afterwards was not.

Instead of calling police, Samson dragged Bruintjies’s body out of the house and dumped it in bushes. He then turned his attention to the second intruder, Renaldo Blaauw, who had also entered the property that night.