MARBLE HALL. Sept. 21. The assassination-style murder Tuesday of an elderly Mpumalanga subsistence farmer -- described by farm workers as a "very kind man" -- are baffling police for its "apparent lack of motive."

The employees' weekly payroll of R700, which the farmer had drawn from the bank earlier that day, had not been robbed, and neither was anything else. Police said the heavily-armed death squad had simply arrived, shot dead the unarmed William Skinner and his old dog, and left again. Skinner, 79, of the Loskop North farmlets outside Marble Hall, was shot by six attackers.

Police Constable Annelien Els said Skinner's domestic worker, who was in her caravan near his house, fled when hearing shots and seeing the heavily-armed attackers heading toward her caravan. Two labourers working nearby, who ran to the house after hearing the shots, found their employer and his old dog lying side-by-side, shot dead.

The policewoman said the labourers were inconsolable about Skinner's death, saying he had been a very "kind, Christian man who although not wealthy, shared everything he had with them, feeding and transporting their children to school, and taking bible classes together in the farm house in the traditional Afrikaner way."

They cried and wailed as his body was being taken away to the mortuary, neighbours have also confirmed. Neighbours said the smallholding was not a cash-earning enterprise.

"Mr Skinner was a pensioner who simply grew some subsistence food and ran a few animals to help feed the workers' families. He was like a beloved patriarch to these workers instead of an employer. Everyone around here knew that he could never turn away anybody who needed help."