Tears flow as farmer meets the walker-against-farm-murders

An emotional and heart-breaking scene took place this afternoon on the farm Vaalbank, outside Bronkhorstspruit, where Duncan Nyawo, the walker-against-farm-murders, met his namesake, Dr Duncan Prinsloo, who was a victim of a brutal farm attack during which his wife was shot dead.

Prinsloo, a farmer and veterinarian, is paralysed in the lower part of his body and needs to use crutches to move around. He fell to his knees when he met Nyawo and thanked him for his awareness campaign against farm attacks and murders. “Today I take my hat off to you. Thank you for what you are doing and for standing up for us.”

Nyawo and four of his co-walkers had tears in their eyes when they saw how difficult Prinsloo moves around. “I am sorry about what happened to you. What is busy happening in our country is wrong,” Nyawo said.

He then tells how he, as a child, grew up on a farm, with a Senekal couple who treated him as their own child. “They were viciously murdered and my dreams to one day become a doctor, were buried with them.”

Nyawo is currently a student teacher at the Ngodini Secondary School in Kobokweni, Mpumalanga.

On Monday, Freedom Day, he embarked on a 350 km hike from Nelspruit to the Union Building in Pretoria, in order to create awareness for farm murders and murders against police members.

Nyawo said it is time that all South Africans realise that they need each other and that they must live together in peace. “No-one is free when people are being murdered.”

Nyawo said that it is time that the government and groupings in the country start to realise the important role farmers are playing. “Those who constantly speak out about land claims, can’t even work their own gardens. How will they work a farm? If people want to take the farmers’ land, who works very hard, then they must rather go and join (Robert) Mugabe’s people.”

Prinsloo thanked Nyawo for the insight that he has for the country’s problems and that he is willing to talk about it.

Prinsloo sadly spoke about the attack in November 2008, during which his wife, Leatitia, was shot dead and left him severely wounded. “Things are difficult. I still have a lot of pain and live on pills. I am very unstable and have no feeling in my legs, which makes it extremely difficult to do my work.” Prinsloo still specialises in cattle and horse embryos.

He said that very few people comprehend the impact of a farm attack or murder on the family and the wider community. His daughter, who was in Gr 11 and found her mother dead in her bed, received therapy for years after the attack. “I lost my soulmate and it was, and still is, not easy.”

“My farm fell apart and many work opportunities were lost for the people.”

Prinsloo said that his faith is the only thing that carries him. “I thank the Lord that I am His child and that I can profess it. I hold on to the Word that says that nothing will happen to me if God does not have a goal for it.”

The Prinsloo’s attackers were never apprehended.