Two of Mr Kirsten’s employees, a security guard who was shot in the leg and brutally assaulted as well as another elderly maintenance worker are currently in Vryheid Hospital following the heinous ambush.

“My guard saw this large crowd of what we believed to be over 20 poachers and their dogs heading into the farm and approached them with the intention to find out what was going on. The crowd seems to have overpowered him and took away his shotgun before proceeding to gang up on him kicking him in the ribs and hurting him badly in the face,” said Mr Kirsten.

Mr Kirsten says he contacted other neighbouring farmers and together they started trying to close up other exits around the farm in Greater Zululand

He also contacted the Hlobane and Louwsburg police for assistance.

“It seemed to have been an organised event as the dogs were dressed in chevron and many of them had numbers. The cars also had registrations ranging from GP to NKR so these seemed to be people from out of town, ” he explained.

Members of Afriforum, SAPS K9 Unit, SAPS Rural Safety, SAPS Zululand Cluster, Pongola Veiligheid and the surrounding community all worked together to cease the operation.

Six suspects were arrested, two vehicles were recovered and a large number of dogs (some shot) were also recovered.

Mr Kirsten said that Vryheid Hospital was making arrangements to get the wounded security to Ladysmith for more medical treatment.

The SAPS have also recovered his shot-gun.

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