Lions' den death: accused to appear in court

January 23 2005 at 01:05PM

The three alleged killers of a man who was tossed to his death in a lions' den will appear in the Phalaborwa circuit court on Monday to stand trial for the murder.

Only the skull, broken leg bones and a finger of Nelson Chisale, 43, were found in the lions' camp of Mokwalo White Lion Project, near Hoedspruit, in a search launched after neighbours reported him missing in January last year.

Not long afterwards, police arrested his former employer Mark Scott-Crossley, 40, and two former colleagues, Richards "Doctor" Mathebule, 30, and Simon Mathebula, 36.

All three now face charges of murder, malicious damage to property and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

They are accused of beating up Chisale when he returned to fetch his personal possessions after being fired by Scott-Crossley - the owner of a construction business at the Engedi game farm, in Limpopo - then loading him on to a vehicle and throwing him to the lions. He was alive at the time.

A fourth man arrested with them, Robert Mnisi, has since turned state witness and been cleared of all charges.

Chisale was buried at his birthplace at Maboloka village, in Brits, North West, in March after a court found that the dignity of his family outweighed the right of his alleged killers to a fair trial.

This came after their urgent application to stop the funeral to enable a forensic pathologist to perform tests on Chisale's body to determine the time and cause of his death.

After several applications for bail were denied, Scott-Crossley was released on R250 000 earlier this month. His two co-accused remain in custody.

Scott-Crossley is the brother of Tracy Lee Scott-Crossley, one of six schoolgirls who disappeared in 1988 and 1989 shortly before paedophile Gert van Rooyen and his lover Joey Haarhoff committed suicide in a police chase.

He has spent most of the past year in the Nelspruit police station's holding cells, where he was moved from Nelspruit prison after eight masked men allegedly robbed and assaulted him in a communal cell, amid suggestions that the murder may have been racially motivated.

The case against Scott-Crossley and his co-accused has been set down for trial until February 4. - Sapa

I was at the place this happened this October. I talked with the landowner who runs the breeding project. It was his land and his lions. He showed me the spot where it happened. He told me the men had beat this fellow to death. They then threw him over the fence into the lion area to try to cover up the crime. It is my understanding that the man was dead before he went over the fence. With the little remaining of the corpse after the lions got through sometime during the night I dont see how anyone could determine the cause of death either from a beating or from the lions.

It's too bad to see RSA hurtling down a path to anarchy and self destruction.

Remember all, it is only the bad news that make it to the papers. There are a lot of good things happening in SA also. Like my son 6 years old shooting his first 3 shot clover leef grooping with the Hornet @ 30 yards.