TWO JAILED FOR LIFE for gruesome murder of Northam’s Hennie Venter

Platinum Bushvelder newspaper | Northam – Five years after Hennie Venter’s family and neighbours handed out flyers and put up posters hoping to bring him home, two men have been sentenced to life imprisonment for his murder.

On Friday 6 November 2026, the Polokwane High Court found Gareth Alexander Potgieter and Wynand Carel Steyn, both 38, guilty of murdering Hendrik Stephanus “Hennie” Venter (43). Each man also received five years for defeating the ends of justice. The court ordered the five-year terms to run concurrently with the life sentences.

Platinum Bushvelder has followed the case since Venter was reported missing in 2021.

In those early weeks, as his family and the Northam community searched for him, a relative told the newspaper, “There are so many questions and no answers, yet we remain hopeful.”

Venter, a 35-year-old man from Northam went missing on 11 September 2021. He took his dog and left home on foot without telling anyone where he was going.

Limpopo police spokesperson colonel Malesela Ledwaba said investigators confirmed in July 2022 that Venter had been murdered. His body had been dismembered and burned, and his remains were discarded along the De Put gravel road near Northam. Police arrested Potgieter in Bloemfontein. Steyn was already in custody in connection with a copper theft case.

Investigators recovered human ribs and vertebrae (bones from his spine), as well as Venter’s ring. They also seized a basin that forensic testing later confirmed contained his DNA, along with a saw, an axe and an electric wood saw. Captain Piet Du Plessis of the Northam Detectives Unit led the investigation.

Limpopo provincial police commissioner lieutenant general Jan Scheepers welcomed the convictions and sentences and commended Du Plessis for his work on the case.

All of us at Platinum Bushvelder send our heartfelt condolences to Hennie’s family and loved ones, who have carried the pain of his loss through these long years.