Alf Lees MP, DA Uthukela constituency head, said initial investigations showed that McKay was attacked in his office in the farm shed immediately after the farm manager and staff left for their homes on Friday evening.
“It seems they [his attackers] were keeping watch and attacked the defenceless Neil McKay once he was on his own. First, they cleaned out the safe then they apparently dragged Neil to his bedroom where they brutally strangled him to death,” said Lees in a statement.
Lees said that the 46-year-old was left crippled when he was shot during a farm attack 20 years ago.
“It seems that despite the passing of 20 years the attackers who crippled Neil McKay have never been convicted. Mrs McKay has had to live through her son being twice attacked, this second time murdered by people who don’t deserve any place in our society except in a maximum-security prison,” Lees said.
“Who would murder a man in a wheelchair? A man in a wheelchair who was both unarmed and physically unable to protect himself.”
KZN farmer who was left crippled in attack 20 years ago murdered
A 46-year-old farmer was found dead, bound in his wheelchair and with strangulation marks on his neck, at a Winterton farm in KwaZulu-Natal on Saturday.
The gruesome discovery of Neil McKay's body is understood to have been made by his mother on Saturday morning when she went into his bedroom.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Capt Nqobile Gwala said a case of murder was being investigated by Winterton SAPS.
“It is alleged that yesterday [Saturday] at 10.15m, the body of a 46-year-old man was found with strangulation marks on the neck at a farm in Winterton. His hands were also tied and he was found in his wheelchair,” she said.
Gwala said the circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated.
Alf Lees MP, DA Uthukela constituency head, said initial investigations showed that McKay was attacked in his office in the farm shed immediately after the farm manager and staff left for their homes on Friday evening.
“It seems they [his attackers] were keeping watch and attacked the defenceless Neil McKay once he was on his own. First, they cleaned out the safe then they apparently dragged Neil to his bedroom where they brutally strangled him to death,” said Lees in a statement.
Lees said that the 46-year-old was left crippled when he was shot during a farm attack 20 years ago.
“It seems that despite the passing of 20 years the attackers who crippled Neil McKay have never been convicted. Mrs McKay has had to live through her son being twice attacked, this second time murdered by people who don’t deserve any place in our society except in a maximum-security prison,” Lees said.
“Who would murder a man in a wheelchair? A man in a wheelchair who was both unarmed and physically unable to protect himself.”
Gwala confirmed that the first attack took place at another farm several years ago.
“Surely this second attack and horrendous murder will move minister of police Bheki Cele to finally give as much attention to solving the thousands of unsolved murder cases as he does to arresting people minding their own business on the beach,” said Lees.
Lees said the DA will monitor the progress that the SAPS make in the investigation.
“We will demand answers from the minister about the failure to charge and convict the first attackers. We will do oversight to ensure that the case is properly investigated and not simply shoved into File 13 along with the thousands of unsolved murder cases that should give Minister Cele sleepless nights but like Jimmy Kruger who presided over the non-investigation of Steve Biko’s murder, seems to be 'left cold',” he said.
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