Fight after dog kills ex-MEC’s peacock
A SMALL dog the size of a Jack Russell is said to be behind a violent fight between neighbours.
The little black-and-white canine is said to have attacked and killed a peacock belonging to former Eastern Cape finance MEC Billy Nel.
Now the owner of the dog, Gavin May, who lives in one of Nel’s houses, is alleging that the former minister sent “goons” to beat him up in retaliation.
May told the Daily Dispatch yesterday that he had become bedridden after two men – one employed by Nel as a caretaker – allegedly assaulted him on Sunday.
He said every time he tried to stand, he became dizzy and fell, and that his hip was also injured in the alleged assault.
But Nel, 73, denied he had anything to do with the assault.
“May is a liar – from what I have heard, he is the one who attacked one of the men after the man threatened to kill May’s dog if it entered his yard.”
Nel told the Dispatch that the dog had recently killed five peacocks and a neighbour’s chicken and a cat.
“I have been telling him to get rid of the dog. He kept telling me that the dog is like his child but I have told him the peacocks are my children too.”
Nel, who said he used to own around 70 peacocks on his property, complained that May’s dog chased more than half of the birds away.
“Some flew over the river to Beacon Bay because that dog is killing them.”
Speaking from his bed, May said Nel arrived yesterday, threw big rocks on his roof and broke a window before storming into the house and dragged him by the leg from his bed.
“He assaulted me in front of my children who are now traumatised.”
Nel laughed off the allegations but admitted that he threw two bricks on the roof to “wake them up”.
“Look at me . . . I’m over 70 years old and the guy must be 30 or 40. How can I even try to start a fight with him? I threw the bricks because they know when I’m coming and lock the doors and ask the children to keep quiet.”
Nel said he was not targeting May but applying the rules to every tenant at the park.
“For instance, there is a lady who was living with 17 cats inside her house. With the help of the SPCA, I got rid of the cats because they were posing a health hazard.”
Nel, a former National Party, UDM and ANC member of parliament, owns Shadow Park on the banks of the Quenera River.
The riverside property has 13 units which he leases to different families.
Since last year, Nel and May had been locked in a public spat. Nel had been accusing May of defaulting on rent while May denies all of this and accused Nel of discriminating against him. —