McKay Neil

Age 46. Neil McKay, a 46-year-old paralyzed farmer who required a wheelchair, was murdered on Friday, April 9, 2021, on Skietrif Farm along Skietsdrif Road in the Winterton area of KwaZulu-Natal. Attackers monitored the property and waited until the farm manager and staff left for the weekend before targeting McKay while he was alone. They confronted and overpowered him inside his farm office, ransacked the office, cleaned out the farm safe, and then dragged him into his home. McKay was bound by his hands while seated in his wheelchair and brutally strangled to death in his bedroom. His family dogs attempted to defend him during the attack and were severely slashed by the perpetrators. His mother discovered his body the following morning, Saturday, April 10, 2021, at approximately 10:00 AM when she went to check on him. Notably, McKay had been paralyzed and bound to a wheelchair because of a gunshot wound sustained during a previous, separate farm attack that occurred roughly 20 years prior. Following the murder, the South African Police Service arrested Bongani Mkhwanazi, 18, in the Khethani area of Winterton, and Bokang Petrose Tsatsi, 23, in Acaciaville, Ladysmith. Mkhwanazi was an employee who had been dismissed from the farm shortly before the incident. Tsatsi was apprehended by police while hiding out and was found in possession of McKay's stolen personal belongings, specifically his binoculars and a speaker. The perpetrators also stole an undisclosed amount of cash from the property. The South African Police Service and the National Prosecuting Authority successfully secured convictions and life sentences against the perpetrators. Bongani Mkhwanazi, a 27-year-old former employee who had been dismissed from the farm two weeks prior to the incident, and his co-accused Bokang Petrose Tasti, 26, were arrested shortly after the murder. During the criminal trial in the Ladysmith Regional Court, prosecutor Satsha Budhram presented cellphone logs and DNA evidence linking both individuals directly to the crime scene.Mkhwanazi provided an official pointing out to detectives that was deemed fully admissible, while Tasti was apprehended by police in possession of McKay's stolen personal belongings, specifically his binoculars and a speaker. In August 2024, the Ladysmith Regional Court found both men guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment for murder, alongside an additional fifteen-year sentence for robbery with aggravating circumstances.