The recent pig farm murders have shed light on a growing trend of violence between farm owners, farm workers and the surrounding community, which has led the South African Human Rights Commission to question what needs to be done.

In August 2024, South Africans woke up to the gruesome news that Maria Makgato and Kudzai Ndlovu had been brutally murdered, allegedly by pig farmer Zachariah Olivier and employees Adriaan De Wet and William Musoro on Olivier's farm in Sebayeng just outside Polokwane, Limpopo.

Makgato (47) and Ndlovu (34) were not only shot several times, but Olivier and his co-accused allegedly fed their bodies to pigs in a bid to conceal the evidence.

Beyond the shocking headlines and gruesome details is the story of a community torn apart by the unfathomable crime and families devastated by the senseless murders.

When Daily Maverick travelled to the farm where the murders took place, we were greeted by a local woman who upon hearing why we were there, said, "Please, this thing is painful. What that man did was evil. No human being deserves to die like that."

When asked if the farmer had shown any sort of violence towards the community before, the woman said that while he had complained about people from the surrounding villages trespassing on his property, she never believed that he would murder people because of it.

The woman was tending a small game meat shop which lay...