Techno-savvy farmers rallied around Stutterheim farmer Ian Cawthorn, 35, who was attacked by a gang at his farmstead at noon on Sunday.
Police were also commended for their role in an operation which involved a police helicopter.
About 50 farmers and 10 Stutterheim residents took part in the action, which resulted in the arrest of two men, aged 28 and 45, whom police spokesman Lieutenant Khaya Tonjeni said would be charged in the Stutterheim Magistrate’s Court today with attempted murder.
“No firearms were recovered,” said Tonjeni, and three men are still at large.
Tonjeni’s account, which differed slightly to those of farmers, was that a vehicle with five male occupants drove onto the farm. Three men got out and told Cawthorn, who was braaiing with a friend, “that they were sent to kill them”.
He said Cawthorn alerted the Stutterheim SAPS and all response units were alerted, and in a short time the vehicle was spotted on the N6.
Police tried unsuccessfully to stop the car, but the driver “stopped and he and other vehicle occupants jumped out and ran in different directions to the nearby bushes,” said Tonjeni.
Farmers said they saw six attackers and Cawthorn said one of them said they were sent to kill only him, and not his friend, Nadine Ranger.
Game farmer John Rance (Junior) said police worked well with the community.
“They were very impressive.”
Farmers reacted en masse to a WhatsApp call to action and helped track down the silver Avanza, which fled from Cawthorn’s Strauss farm and was racing along a dirt road through the Bolo area.
The car was spotted by farmer Derick Erasmus, who was driving home from church in his double-cab bakkie.
He tailed them until he saw the vehicle hit the sharp edge of the N6 tar road and burst a tyre. Erasmus said he stopped 200m away and watched as the gang coasted to a halt, got out, put up an emergency triangle and started changing the wheel.
However, when a police van from Henderson came past and Erasmus flagged it down and spoke to the officers, he saw six of the gang climb out of their vehicle and flee into the thick bush.
Farmers and police rushed to the scene and members of the SAPS dog unit arrested a man.
Cawthorn, a third-generation farmer, said: “I thought they were looking for directions. Then one guy said he was sent to kill me and tried to grab my arm. I ran to the house and was locking the thick wooden door when a shot went off.”
It went through the door, grazed Ranger’s leg, leaving a small cut, and slammed into a couch.
“I have no idea why it happened. It’s all a bit surreal,” he said.
The gang drove away and Cawthorn called his neighbour, George Viljoen, whose wife Maria raised the alarm on WhatsApp.
The farming community converged along a rough triangle made by local roads to surround the gang.
Rance said one of the men, who was arrested in thick wattle, was well-dressed, and claimed he was searching for traditional plants for medicine. — mikel@dispatch.co.za