This Day in History: 24 July 2001
Marius Swanepoel and Hendrik Du Preez were convicted by Judge Faan Hancke for murder on two soldiers, Michael Leisanyane and Gilmore van Wyk, in an apparent rightwing-inspired ammunition theft at Tempe, Bloemfontein, in June 1998. Du Preez's younger brother Petrus was acquitted after the state failed to prove that he had envisaged the soldiers' death. Leisanyane and Van Wyk were transporting ammunition in an army truck from De Burg to Ladybrand when they were ambushed.