A South African game farmer and three of his employees appeared before a court on Tuesday for allegedly feeding a fired worker to lions.

Phalaborwa Magistrate's Court remanded Mark Scott Crossley (35) and his employees Simon Mathebula (43), Richard Mathebula (41) and Robert Mnisi (34) to a week in custody, police spokeswoman Ronel Otto was quoted as saying.

The four were arrested on Monday at the Engedi game farm near Hoedspruit, about 350km northeast of Johannesburg, after the police recovered the skull, pieces of leg and clothes of a man identified as 38-year-old Nelson Shisane, at another game farm at Mokwalo White Lion Project.

According to information received, Otto said, Shisane was severely assaulted at the Engedi game farm before being tied up, driven 15km to the other game farm and thrown over a fence into the lion enclosure.

Shisane's family had reported his disappearance to the police, Otto added.

"The investigating officer into the missing person report followed up information and his investigation led him to the farm where the alleged incident was uncovered."