Wessels Jurie "Tool"

Age 55. The attack was orchestrated and executed by four of his own seasonal farm workers who were illegal immigrants from Lesotho. Around 18:30, the four balaclava-clad attackers surprised Wessels’ wife, Liezel, while she was bathing. Tool Wessels was ambushed and tied up immediately upon returning to the house after driving other farm workers home. The attackers tied up the couple, severely beat them, and demanded cash. They repeatedly boiled a kettle and poured boiling water over the couple's heads and backs to force cooperation. If the victims prayed, cried, or spoke to each other, they were punched in the mouth. Liezel Wessels was stabbed in the chest with a sharp object. The assailants then dragged Tool Wessels out of the house, pulled him along the grapevines, and shot him in the face with his own .22 rifle at a vineyard pump house roughly 200 meters from the home. He was found dead with his hands tied behind his back and a tie stuffed in his mouth. Liezel managed to untie herself, flee the scene in a vehicle, and raise the alarm at a neighboring farm. One nineteen-year-old suspect, Ntabanyane Tlali, was arrested within days of the attack while in possession of Wessels' stolen .22 rifle. The remaining three suspects—Thabiso Ramollo, Moeketsi Hlauli, and Keketso Matshabisa—fled across the border to Lesotho. Following a lengthy extradition process led by the National Prosecuting Authority, they were handed back to South African authorities in July 2022 to face trial. In October 2023, Judge Derek Wille presiding over the Swellendam Circuit High Court convicted and sentenced all four attackers to life imprisonment for murder. They also received ten years for attempted murder, fifteen years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, five years for firearms charges, and three months for immigration violations.