Relatives counting cost of killing
Father murdered on smallholding on Friday night leaves behind young children.
Relatives of a murdered Centurion father were this week contemplating the emotional and other costs of his untimely death.
“We are left to pick up the pieces and help care for his children,” said Nicholas Morgan (33) about the loss of his 43-year-old brother Mathew Morgan.
Mathew was murdered in what appears to have been a botched robbery on the Mnandi smallholding last Friday.
Mathew had just dropped off his children around 19:45 for a movie night at his father’s house, another house on the same smallholding.
The children and Mathew’s father Douglas (72), were in the house when they heard the shots being fired around 20:15.
Mathew’s business partner, who wished to remain anonymous, said her husband Willem came running from their own home on the smallholding when he too was shot at by two or three men.
“The one bullet hit the ground while the other hit a tree next to him. Willem said he could feel the wind from the bullet as it came past him,” she said.
When they arrived at Mathew’s home he was dead, lying in the doorway, halfway between the house and the patio.
He had been shot twice in the head. Some of his teeth were also knocked out.
There was another bullet hole in the open patio door.
The attackers, believed to have been four men, fled by cutting through the wire fence, setting off the fence alarm.
Nicholas said it seemed as if the men had scouted the property before breaking in. They did not cut any fencing to get in, only when they left.
“We wish we knew why this happened. We have no answers. Everything about what happened that night my brother took with him,” he said.
Mathew’s body was still at the coroner on Monday afternoon. Mathew’s business partner also picked up another 9mm bullet casing on Monday morning.
She suspected someone had broken in again on Sunday night, because some items in an old car on the property were missing and some of the fencing was moved.
Nicholas said funeral arrangements were being made, adding that his brother’s death had shaken the entire family.
“Everyone called him a Viking. He was a true leader,” he said.
“Mathew earned a living by restoring and selling old cars and motorbikes. He loved it. Now his children are left without an income. We as a family will of course stand together and help them, but it is a difficult time. Everything has changed.”
The family had been living on the smallholding for the past 47 years. The children all grew up on the property.
Mathew’s business partner and Nicholas said the regular attacks on farmers and residents of small holdings in the area were a great concern.
“It feels like we have to live in a prison just to be safe. It feels like genocide,” Nicholas said.
“We just hope the police can link the weapon used to other attacks and catch these guys.”
Wierdabrug police spokesperson Captain Agnes Huma could not yet confirm what the police were investigating and how many suspects they had.
Anyone with information on the murder could phone Wierdabrug police on 012-654-4031.
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