Bereaved son stages lone placard protest

GRAHAMSTOWN -- Dairy farmer Peter Wylie, 53, staged a lone placard protest outside the Grahamstown Magistrate's Court complex yesterday.

Mr Wylie's 76-year-old father, George, was recently murdered in his sickbed on their farm Upper Gletwyn outside Grahamstown and Peter Wylie was shot at but the bullet narrowly missed him.

His protest yesterday coincided with the appearance in court of two additional suspects who were arrested in a 1am raid on Thursday.

The new suspects will join Mthutuzeli Kamane, 32, and Bongani Tafane, 30, both of Grahamstown, who are facing charges for the murder.

Mr Wylie said he held up a placard in English and Xhosa stating: "Down with criminals, killers, thieves, rapists -- let them forfeit their human rights!"

He said he would be holding a televised news conference on his farm on Saturday which he hoped leaders of the Democratic Party, the Pan Africanist Congress and the African National Congress would attend. He would call each party representative out to face the camera and interview them on the issue of crime, particularly crime against farmers.

East Cape DP leader Eddie Trent has confirmed his attendance.

Mr Wylie said he had asked an independent television crew to take the footage as he was unhappy with the SABC.

"I want them (politicians) to speak to the nation to show solidarity with victims of crime. The PAC must not send out mixed messages."

He said the two local PAC leaders had visited him on his farm on Sunday and told him that the war was over and that the killings should stop.