Missionary in court after farm worker shot with pellet gun
Polokwane – A Christian missionary allegedly shot a worker on a Limpopo farm with a pellet gun while trying to hit a monkey, the farm’s owner said on Friday.
“What happened was an accident,” Novengilla farm owner Jan-Louis Pretorius said.
“A shot was fired at a monkey, it missed and instead hit the farm worker who was riding his bicycle.”
The alleged shooter, Johannes Potgieter, was a Christian missionary living as a tenant on the farm, and not Pretorius, as police originally reported on Thursday.
Potgieter appeared in the Ritavi Magistrate's Court on Friday on a charge of attempted murder. He was released on R5 000 bail.
Mathanene Ishmael, 55, was returning from a store room on his bicycle when he was shot in the head with a pellet gun on Wednesday, Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said in a statement.
Pretorius said he was in Port Elizabeth at the time, and that a farm manager helped Ishmael.
“As farmers we get such bad publicity. Some of it is justified, but not in this case. It was an accident, and unfortunate for both of them,” he said.
Police investigations are continuing.
