The SA Human Rights Commission is concerned about allegations of ongoing human rights violations in the farms, and will ask the National Prosecuting Authority to drop charges against a couple that was charged with illegally digging a corpse at a farm in Koppies in the Free State.

According to media reports the couple was allegedly ordered by their employer and farm owner, to exhume the remains of their child buried, on whose land the child was buried. It is also alleged that when the couple decided to resign after clashing with the farmer who apparently ordered them to dig up the child’s remains, and then drove them off 300 km to Pretoria where he dumped them.

In addition the Commission will also write to the National Police Commissioner, and the Gauteng and Free State Police Commissioners, to inform them that it would be monitoring the case and, that it would be requesting regular updates on the matter.

The Commission has also spoken to the Mayor of Koppies who has given an undertaking to assist the couple in receiving professional counseling. The mayor has also undertaken to assist them to register the death of their child with the department home affairs and to assist them to acquire proper exhumation, relocation and reburial papers. The remains will then be buried at the couple’s place choice.

The Commission will also look into the possibility of instituting civil proceedings against the farmer, and the Minister of Safety Security for the wrongful arrest of the couple when they went to report a crime at the Soshanguve Police Station.

In line with its constitutional mandate of investigating human rights violations in order to secure redress, last year the Commission held a second Public Hearing into human rights violations at farming communities and is expected to release its recommendations report soon.

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