“I think would have been better if they had shot me than burying me alive,'” Mlotshwa told the packed court gallery.

Victor Mlotshwa, who was forced into a coffin by two men in Middelburg, told the High Court sitting in the town’s Magistrate’s Court that he would rather have been shot than buried alive.

Mlotshwa was responding to cross-examination by advocate Org Basson who asked if Mlotshwa was not afraid they would shoot him when he suddenly ran from the coffin.Mlotshwa was testifying in the fifth day of the trial.

Theo Jackson and Willem Oosthuizen are facing charges of kidnapping, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, attempted murder and possession of an illegal firearm.

Under the cross-examination by advocate Wayne Gibbs for Oosthuizen, Mlotshwa denied threatening the accused after they insisted they would take him to the police.

Gibbs said the accused wanted to take Mlotshwa to the police station after they found him in possession of suspected stolen property.

Gibbs said Oosthuizen would say that Mlotshwa continued to beg and invited them to rather assault him than take him to the police. “I know nothing about that,” replied Mlotshwa.

He also added that Oosthuizen would say that Mlotshwa had a knobkerrie in his possession when the accused approached him.

“If I recall, when they apprehended me, I did not have a stick or kerrie with me. The only thing I had with me was money,” he said.Gibbs also told Mlotshwa that according to the accused, he uttered two serious threats.

“You said: ‘If you take me to the police, when I come out I will burn your crops every year.’ You also said: ‘I know where you stay.’ You said: ‘I know you have wives and children and I will kill them,'” said Gibbs.

But Mlotshwa denied this.

Gibbs said for the accused to prevent Mlotshwa’s threats and deter him from stealing they decided to scare him and “trump” his threats.

The trial continues.

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