Police Station Commander’s Son Implicated in Brutal South African Farm Attacks

The family endured two brutal farm attacks in South Africa, a decade apart, but received no justice.

In a chilling account from South Africa, Pieter van der Westhuizen shared his family’s ordeal of surviving two brutal farm attacks, a decade apart, with no justice delivered. The incidents, detailed in the documentary Crimes Against Humanity by Willem Petzer, expose a grim reality for many Afrikaner farmers.

In 2003, van der Westhuizen’s father, then in his early 70s, was viciously attacked at his home in Leeudoringstad. Assailants struck him with a water pipe, leaving him bloodied and unconscious. His wife found him and rushed him to the police station, but no immediate action was taken. Van der Westhuizen drove from Phalaborwa to find his father still waiting at the station, unassisted. Despite catching the perpetrators himself, no arrests were made, and the case stalled. The attack, he insists, was not about theft but intent to kill, thwarted only by his father’s dog breaking free.

In 2017, tragedy struck again. Van der Westhuizen’s brother, his wife, uncle, and aunt were attacked at a smallholding in Leeuwdoringstad. Assailants tortured the family, severing four of his brother’s toes. His brother fought back, killing one attacker and wounding another, but the case was buried. Shockingly, one of the perpetrators was allegedly the son of the local police station commander, and the surviving attacker, treated in the same hospital, vanished without a trace. A Cuban doctor initially refused to treat van der Westhuizen’s brother until a police officer intervened.

Both attacks left deep scars. Van der Westhuizen’s father struggled for years to recover emotionally, while his brother, traumatized, immigrated to North Dakota with his family. “They didn’t come to steal,” van der Westhuizen said. “They came to murder.” He accuses law enforcement of inaction, particularly when victims are white, alleging systemic bias.

Despite the pain, he remains defiant, refusing to leave the country his forefathers’ “blood paid for.” For van der Westhuizen and many others, justice remains elusive, fueling distrust in South Africa’s institutions.