A white South African farmer ran over a 6-year-old boy for allegedly “stealing” an orange off the ground, and now the community demands answers.
Outrage is quickly spreading across South Africa’s West Coast after 70-year-old farmer Christoffel Johannes Stoman was arrested for ramming his vehicle — with a trailer attached — into Kwezi Beukes, a young boy from Lutzville, over a piece of fruit.
The incident happened on Sept. 20, when Beukes and his mother, Magdalene Jantijies, were on their way to do food shopping and walked by Stoman’s smallholder farm. The child reportedly picked up one orange off the ground. When he reached through a fence to grab a second orange that had fallen off the tree, Stoman came from around the corner and slammed his vehicle into the mother and child, pinning them against the fence, Jantijies told local news outlet eNCA.
“He came from around the corner, and he was driving at a speed. He shouted, ‘Stand there, stand there,’ I thought he was going to stop. He aimed directly at us in a corner, and I screamed, ‘Help! Help!’” recalled the horrified mother. “He said, ‘I’m going to kill you by driving into you.’”
The child suffered severe injuries, including two broken legs, and was rushed to the local hospital before being transferred to the larger Paarl Hospital outside of Cape Town for emergency surgery.
In the wake of the tragedy, Stoman allegedly has shown no remorse, telling police he “would do it again,” reported eNCA.
He now faces two charges of attempted murder and a charge of reckless and negligent driving, per the Daily Mail. On Sept. 30, he asked for bail at Vredendal Magistrate’s Court.
According to the National African Youth League, this is the latest incident in Stoman’s “long history of unchecked aggression.”
In a Sept. 26 press release, the Black nationalist organization accused Stoman of “repeated brutality” against “vulnerable community members” that have “gone unpunished for far too long,” pointing to Stoman’s rumored connections with local law enforcement.
“Time and again, Stoman has been shielded from justice, highlighting the toxic combination of power, corruption, and impunity that continues to endanger the lives of innocent Black children and families in our society,” read the statement.
This time, the state has opposed bail for Stoman, according to eNCA. “We visited the crime scene, and there is no way that this boy could have gained access to the orchard over that fence,” Eric Ntabazalila, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson, said last week to the news outlet. “The suspect should answer in a court of law for this reckless behavior.” Stoman’s bail hearing is now set for Oct. 4, The Daily Sun reports.
Stoman’s wife and brother-in-law testified on his behalf on Monday, with his wife claiming that he did not intend to harm the boy. She told the court that the child’s mother declined their help and then left the boy behind at the scene before returning with the police. She denies that her husband threatened to run over the mother and child.
Stoman will also answer to the court of public opinion as outrage explodes on social media.
“Good, these farmers must stop being evil,” posted a concerned observer on X. “This is actually barbaric, how do you do this to a six year Old kid, you expropriate the Land in this cases of criminal activities” read another post.
When the tragic story first broke, Stoman was initially not named as the suspect, causing ire among locals who felt his identity was being protected because of his race.
“We don’t want to see pictures of oranges. We know what oranges look like. Oranges didn’t run over a small, hungry boy, breaking both his legs. Christoffel Stoman did. We want to see his face! Not oranges. We want to see the face of hatred,” opined another.
The terrible incident comes on the heels of the alleged murder in August of two women who were shot by farmers and reportedly fed to pigs after they tried to collect expired food that had been dumped on a Limpopo farm by a dairy company. The news ignited protests, and the South African Human Rights Commission urged the public not to take the law into their own hands, reported NBC. That trial is set to take place in October.
There is a long history of violence on farms in South Africa, including abuse by farm owners and retaliatory killings. In the case of 6-year-old Khwezi, the public is hoping against hope for justice in the courts.
“He needs to be locked [up] forever,” wrote an X user. “A 6-year-old doesn’t know what stealing is, [he] just saw a fruit, and [he] wanted it, that’s it. How is he going to argue in court with this toddler.”
