Hell comes to Digawana

In a few words, Deputy headman Moatlhodi Kgwakgwe spoke of an uneasy period of tension between his subjects and the Caucasian farmer months before the mass slaughter of their livestock.Kgosi Kgwakgwe described the farmer as a vengeful man with little respect for the villagers. "When our animals stray onto his farm that lies three kilometres outside Digawana, he locks them up for days without food or water," the headman said. "When people go to retrieve them, he demands compensation for trespassing."

Although his conversation with Mmegi was brief, the headman repeated the refrain that it has been an unpleasant co-existence with the farmer who goes by the name of Koos."Even so," he said, "it never occurred to us that the friction could reach a point where our cattle would be poisoned."