This, as her court battle between AfriForum's private prosecution unit, acting on behalf of the National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (NSPCA), was scheduled to continue yesterday. 

Modise is facing charges related to animal cruelty, and her trial was expected to begin following the gruesome discovery of starving animals on her farm in 2014 in the North West. 

Following Modise's failure to appear in court, her legal representative argued that it was because President Cyril Ramaphosa had summoned her to Pretoria in the midst of the Coronavirus pandemic. 

A warrant for her arrest was then issued but it was stayed on condition that she appear in court on March 31.

In a statement, the NSPCA spokesperson, Grace de Lange, says the National Council of SPCAs was approached by Advocate Gerrie Nel to take this case on a private prosecution after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) declined to prosecute the case in 2017 – claiming that there was insufficient evidence.

"In July 2014, the NSPCA obtained a warrant to inspect the animals on a farm in the North West Province belonging to Thandi Modise, this was after receiving a tip-off that animals on the property had been abandoned. Modise’s farm was littered with the carcasses of over 50 pigs and other dead animals, such as geese, ducks, sheep, and goats," she adds.   

De Lange says that over 100 pigs, sheep, chickens and goats were found without food and water and animals were found dead and dying. 

"The animals were so desperately hungry, they were feeding off carcasses, and eating newborn young. It was one of the cruelest cases of animal abuse that the NSPCA had come across," she further adds.  

De Lange states that these animals were denied basic minimum care and suffered neglect and starvation.

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