Daily Sun (April 14 2014) - FOR ALMOST an hour Gabanakgosi endured unbearable torture and pain. As he hung upside down from a tree, he had his balls squeezed with pliers, he was severely beaten with sjamboks and threatened with pangas. AND ALL THE TIME GABANAKGOSI WONDERED IF HE WAS GOING TO DIE.
"Let's chop off his head," Gabanakgosi heard one of the men say.
"No, let's cut off his balls instead," said another.
Gabanakgosi Gaobuse (34) is one of two men who were grabbed by livestock farmers in Garuele Village outside Kuruman, Northern Cape.
Accused of stealing their cattle, Gabanakgosi and his friend were paraded through the village and tortured.
The video was taken by the farmers and circulated in the village. Eventually it was sent to The People's Paper.
In it, the defenceless men are moered by men with sjamboks . . . and ordered to take turns whipping each other.
The farmers used a pair of pliers to pull on Gabanakgosi's ears and he was repeatedly kicked and dragged through thorns.
"You are spilling blood on us, you fokken hond," one of the attackers is heard saying as the men bled.
In an evil practice known as "upstairs", Gabanakgosi was suspended upside down from a tree, his hands and feet tied together with a bundle of thorns and sticks arranged under his head as they threatened to set him on fire.
"At that time I wished I was dead," he said.
"The pain I endured I will never experience again in a thousand years."
Gabanakgosi denied the allegations. He said the farmers respond to wild information they get in the village.
Another local villager, Emmanuel Khabae agreed. He said innocent people are hunted and hounded because of rumours. "My life is in danger. I have left my house and can't go to work because I am scared of being beaten for no reason," he said.
SAPS Colonel Priscilla Naidu confirmed that a case of assault was opened on 19 March. She said four people appeared in court for attempted murder, instead of assault, but the case was provisionally withdrawn by the court due to insufficient evidence.
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