Our hearitage

SANDY GRANT | Thursday June 20, 2013 00:00

 

He is recorded in Hansard as having stated that he had first arrived in this country in 1926 when he would have been 32 years old but there appears to be no certain information as to his place of birth or indeed about his earlier years. But between 1926 and his sad, tragic death in 1970 he was a farmer, a senior civil servant, a trader and a leading politician but one who may never have been a member of any political party.His murder, at his home in Lobatse on 12th January 1970, by 20-year-old Koos Ockhuizen and 19-year-old Wilson William Banda was as senseless and cruel as any such crime can be.The intention of those two was to steal but when Sir Russell's body was found, it had 12 injuries, 11 of them being stab wounds.

No one could know if Sir Russell had surprised Ockhuizen and Banda during the night and if so how this might have explained the violence of their assault on him. His body was quickly discovered in the morning and within a short time the two were picked up by the South African police trying to break through the border fence.Thereafter matters moved inexorably and amazingly fast. On the 11th May they appeared in the High Court, were found guilty by Justice Dendy Young and condemned to death. On the 14th July, the Court of Appeal rejected their appeal and on the 8th August, they were executed.