Raath Hansie

Age 53 year old farm foreman Hansie Raath was killed in a triple homicide on Farm Palmietkuil. The incident unfolded during the evening while Hansie Raath was preparing and serving dinner inside the farmhouse. He had invited a group of local workers' children over to the house to eat as part of community upliftment work he regularly conducted. Sitting at the dinner table with them was 28-year-old Tsietsi Joseph Mangola, a former assistant and laborer whom Hansie Raath had supported both morally and financially over the years. During the meal, Mangola abruptly stood up from the table, walked into Hansie Raath’s bedroom, and retrieved a pistol from the property safe. He returned to the kitchen, walked up behind Hansie Raath, and shot him directly behind the ear, killing him instantly. As the children scattered and attempted to escape the house, the gunman shot and killed two young boys, 11-year-old Petrus Mohlamme and 15-year-old Katleho Mosolodi. The remaining four children managed to flee the house into the dark to alert neighbors and the police. The perpetrator then stole Hansie Raath's firearm and his white bakkie to flee the scene.Free State police launched an immediate manhunt, discovering the abandoned bakkie the following day in Kroonstad. Tsietsi Joseph Mangola was tracked down and arrested on Sunday, September 20, 2015, in Maokeng township, Kroonstad, where he subsequently pointed out where he had thrown the stolen pistol into the Vals River. A second 30-year-old accomplice was arrested alongside him for acting as a getaway driver by transporting Mangola from Vredefort to the township. Mangola was formally charged in the Vredefort Magistrate's Court with three counts of murder, theft of a firearm, and motor vehicle theft, remaining in custody through the duration of his high court trial.