Finally, after years of uncertainty and trial, Alex de Koker and his henchman Michael Erasmus were found guilty of the 2011 murder of 15-year-old Raymond Buys at the Echo Wild Game Rangers camp, “designed to turn boys into men.” Two other youths had previously died at the same camp, with de Koker suspected of abuse, but never brought to justice.
At last de Koker has been held responsible for at least one murder. Many believe the camp, was in part, a camp that conducted a form of “reparative” therapy for “effeminate” boys.
A doctor who examined a badly emaciated Raymond Buys when he was admitted to hospital, a day before his death, found he had cigarette burns, was brain damaged and in a deep coma, had a broken arm, and signs of kidney failure.
We reported the case here on OBLOGDEE – noting that a young man’s life was cut short by man who called him a “Moffie” (“fag”) and then tortured him to death.
Magistrate Hon. Retha Willemse noted: “Accused one [De Koker] was a pathetic witness”. It was “absurd” for him to have claimed that he was not aware of Buys’s injuries. “Accused one tried to mislead the court. De Koker didn’t want Buys to return to his mother, because he was benefiting financially from having Buys at the camp,” she said.
Willemse found Erasmus, accused two, was a willing participant in the abuse.
“The testimony of accused two that he followed instructions because he didn’t have any other option is rejected by the court. .. Accused two didn’t just follow instructions from accused one to abuse Buys, but also did it out of his own initiative.”
The fact that accommodation was provided for Erasmus and his girlfriend and that a bank account was opened for him, was motivation for him to continue what he was doing, the Magistrate noted.
Willemse detailed the abuse meted out to Buys: “He was punched, struck with a spade, a stick, and a “piele wapper” (60cm-long rubber pipe). He was forced to eat soap powder, pick up his own faeces with his mouth and was kicked and slapped while unconscious to “wake him up”.
Witnesses testified that during his time at the camp, Buys was dirty, neglected and would soil himself. He could not walk properly and often collapsed.
The doctor testified that some of the injuries were up to a month old and the worst he had ever seen.
After the judgment, Buys’s mother Wilna burst into tears in the front row of the public gallery.
Sentencing will follow. We will keep you posted.
Updates:
Operations manager of Women and Men Against Child Abuse, Tania Otto, said the judgment was excellent: “We’re very surprised that the magistrate found them guilty of murder because judges seems hesitant of that.”
After the judgment, De Koker, wearing a bright pink shirt with his feet cuffed together, gave his wife a long hug over the dock before a number of police officers led him back to the holding cells.
Wilna Buys, Raymond’s mother:
“I have mixed emotions, but I’m happy that they were both found guilty and that it’s come to an end.”
“I think he’s sitting and smiling down on us and is proud of everything we’ve done,” she said, bursting into tears.
“It wasn’t easy to be here all the time, but we made a promise to Raymond.”
Earlier articles on OBLOGDEE about this case:
Man up or die | murders of effeminate teens at South African Ranger Training Camp
Were they murdered for being gay? A picture of a beaten dying teen, a picture of a Nazi-like flag – and in between a Game Ranger Camp to make “Moffies” into men By Melanie Nathan . April 25, 2013. Look at this photograph and imagine a 15 year old effeminate teen being sent” by his mother […]
Justice delayed as reparative death camp killer has unpaid legal fees
By Melanie Nathan, June 19, 2013. Today, in Vereeniging, South Africa, the ongoing murder trial of the owner of Echo Wild Game Ranger Camp, Alex de Koker, 49, and his co-accused, Michael Erasmus (20) was postponed yet again, due to the accused murderer’s inability to pay his legal fees resulting in the withdrawal of his […]
Man-Up or die murderer marries in court moments after testimony about torture he inflicted on teen
on May 30, 2013 COURT ON MAY 30 – Killer De Koker (right) allowed to marry Marais, moments after testimony in the death of Raymond Buys, on life support for 2 weeks after torture at the hands of de Koker By Melanie Nathan, May 30, 2013. Compare the two photos. One is the victim photographed in his hospital bed, […]
Armed Police at trial as right wing militia support “Man-Up” murder accused in South Africa
Accused murderer fears for his life in prison after assault By Melanie Nathan, May 28, 2013. The trial of the Afrikaner right wing extremist, accused of murdering a young man who was sent to his camp to “man up” commenced in Vereeniging, South Africa, yesterday and is set to continue through the next few days, […]
Ex-Gay extremists try to defend their exploits by distancing their quackery from murderered teen
Andre Bekker, Richard Cohen and Christopher Doyle | While their modus operandi may be different to accused murderer de Koker, their ideology stinks the same stink! By Melanie Nathan, May 01, 2013. A South African, Andre Bekker, who proclaims to be an ex-gay and an authority on converting gays, teamed up with tired extremists in […]
Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
This I have to share …. justice was served!!
“Alex de Koker and his henchman Michael Erasmus were found guilty of the 2011 murder of 15-year-old Raymond Buys”
How can people live with themselves when they do such an atrocious act. We are all God’s children and deserve to be treated equally.
I would welcome any information you have on the same sort of juvenile camp run by Congresswoman Michelle Bachman and her husband. It appears there’s a lot of money in this racket and NONE of these “charities” are run, free of charge.
I have no objection to a man or woman exploring their heterosexual side, just as I demand the right to explore my homosexuality, but it would be child molestation and child abuse to try and force a juvenile – helpless and not in control of his/her own world – to try and “convert” to either homosexuality or heterosexuality.
And, honestly, if you really need to “try that hard” to be something you are not, has it ever occurred to any of these people that “perhaps there never was a problem, to begin with, and that gay men and women are simply happy, healthy well-adjusted people, already?” About the only thing “messed up” in some of their lives are family members who cannot or will not accept them.
As to these children, it’s perverted of the adults to obsess about children in the way that these people do, worrying so about what they will do and who they will have sex with, as adults: water finds its own level: churches, mosques and synagogues have tried this for the past 5,000 years and it simply doesn’t work that way because human beings don’t work that way.
I am co producing this film. Here is the sting Armgayddon did on Bachmann – http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/12/michele-and-marcus-bachmann-ex-gay-clinic_n_1420752.html
AH! Per-fect. When it is done, I’m happy to publicize it.
what IS this?? how can a modern society even host these kind of people??
monstrous. The mother should also be charged for sending her son here to his death.
The mother had no idea – she was devastated. I am sure they did not realize what was going on. Probably the part of wanting her son to “man up” very much a cultural thing… was a motivated by Afrikaner conservative culture there.
Thank you, Melanie,
For reporting that at least two psychopaths have been found guilty for their crimes…
That poor mother, how she must suffer now? For wishing she could change her own baby, a perfectly wonderful child, she handed him over to this lot…
She will never recover.
Sad, all around.
T
Reblogged this on Fairy JerBear's Queer World News, Views & More From The City Different – Santa Fe, NM and commented:
A measure of justice for victim of effeminaphobia and homophobia in South Africa…
Reblogged this on Daily Queer News.