An elderly man who was killed during an attack on his farm about 10km outside Joubertina on Friday morning died as a result of being beaten.
On Monday, police identified the man as retired farmer Norman Ludwig, 69, who owned the Valleisig farm – a former cattle farm.
Police spokesman Sergeant Majola Nkohli said t the only thing thought to have been taken during the attack was money.
“We are still assessing the case but at the moment it only appears that money was stolen. Detectives are however still consulting with family who will go through the house to see if anything else is possibly missing.”
Ludwig’s body was found lying outside the house near a kitchen door on Friday morning. Asked about the cause of death, Nkohli said it appeared that he had been beaten and hit over the head with an unknown object.
“The murder weapon was however not found on the scene. At this stage all we know is that he was struck over the head with a hard object several times. The exact weapon remains unknown at this stage,” he added.
“There also appears to be no signs of forced entry, making it difficult to establish what exactly transpired. The matter is however being investigated and forensic experts have already combed the crime scene.”
Asked about time of death, Nkohli said they were awaiting the postmortem results to ascertain when the attack happened. Nkohli added that the family did not want to speak to the media.
Last month, the annual crime statistics for the period April 1 2017 to March 31 2018 showed that sixty-two farm murders had been reported countrywide.
The dead included both farm owners and farm workers. A case of murder and robbery is still under investigation.