Owner of Pofadder Hotel Found Brutally Murdered in Swimming Pool

The owner of the well-known Pofadder Hotel, Leon Brits (40), has been brutally murdered. According to local reports, his wife Suretha (30) discovered his body in their undercover swimming pool, at around 11h45 on Wednesday morning after she couldn’t reach him on the phone. The community has been urged to remain calm. UPDATE 29 MARCH 2021: Leon Brits’ wife has been arrested for the hotel owner’s murder.

The Freedom Front Plus said that “according to early reports, the incident relates to a labour dispute. He was allegedly stabbed with knives, strangled with a chain and then thrown into the indoor pool, where his wife later found him.” Brits had allegedly told his brother this week that staff were stealing from the hotel kitchen.

The FFP called on the normally peaceful Boesmanland community, which has been shocked by the murder, to “remain calm until it becomes clear what exactly transpired. South Africa currently finds itself in a very volatile situation as the temperature is on the rise due to various cruel murders”.

The party said: “While the onslaught on the safety of ordinary citizens must surely stop, the people must also refrain from irresponsible behaviour and statements.”

Veronica Van Dyk – DA Constituency Head in Kamiesberg  – said the Democratic Alliance in the Northern Cape is “shocked by the brutal murder of Leon Brits” and condemns it. In a statement on Wednesday evening, Van Dyk said the DA, like South Africans nationwide, is “fed up with escalating levels of violent crime in South Africa and especially the increasingly vicious attacks on people residing in our rural areas.”

She said: “The levels of crime that we are witnessing are simply unthinkable and inhumane. We cannot continue to live in a society where people are tortured to death on a daily basis and nothing is done about it.”

According to IOL, Brits and his wife lived in Kakamas during the week, approximately 140km from Pofadder, where their three children attended school. Brits had spent Tuesday night in Pofadder with his brother (Tokkie) who had left early in the morning to return to his Strandfontein home.

The FFP explained that in recent years Pofadder has grown significantly due to the Kamsberg mine which has been developed between Aggenys and Pofadder.

“The development has created many economic possibilities in the Boesmanland, which has been affected by severe droughts lately. Apart from tourism, extensive sheep farming is the only other significant economic activity thriving in the desert-like region,” said the FFP.

“In general, the carefree nature of the area and the friendliness of its people are some of the region’s greatest assets. Only time will tell whether this gruesome incident has destroyed this for good.”

The DA’s Van Dyk said: “President Cyril Ramaphosa, government leaders and the police must come to the table now. They cannot allow this to continue. They need to act or otherwise be seen as being complicit in the ongoing massacre of people residing in outlying areas.

“We need drastically improved policing to stop the murders. We need more police officers, more resources and more upskilling of our police service. We need this today, not tomorrow or the next day because by then, more lives will have been unnecessarily lost.

“We also need more perpetrators arrested and convicted as a matter of urgency, because otherwise the cycle of crime and the fear will simply continue unabated.

“The killings must end today. People in rural areas also have the right to life and the right to safety and those who have fallen prey to ruthless criminals deserve justice too.”