The Cradle of Humankind is under threat of being overrun by gun-toting, cold-blooded killers.
In the past few months a number of restaurant and lodge owners have been targeted and gunned down on their Muldersdrift properties.
Last week, Franz Richter, a well-known conservationist and owner of the Heia Safari Ranch, was gunned down at the ranch by four armed robbers who shot him in the head and chest before fleeing on foot with an undisclosed sum of money.
On Monday, as family, friends and neighbours laid 80-year-old Richter to rest at the ranch, praise for the esteemed conservationist was interspersed with personal experiences of crime.
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'Things have never been this bad' Standing sombrely at Richter's graveside, his five adopted children wept openly, staring longingly as his coffin was lowered into the soil.
"Things have never been this bad," said Jacques Treptow of Drift Reaction Services.
Off the top of his head Treptow was able to rattle off a number of incidents where armed robbers had attacked lodge and restaurant owners.
Two weeks ago, the owner of Belgables Country Restaurant was critically wounded when robbers shot him in the abdomen. He is still in intensive care in hospital.
In another incident in 2007, a security guard at Dune Riders was shot and killed, seemingly for his firearm.
At the South African Lion Park, a security guard was beaten to death with a crowbar. The killers made off with sound equipment from the park.
After Richter's murder, community members banded together to help apprehend the suspects.
"Police, helicopters and community members searched for them (Richter's attackers) on Wednesday," said Natasha Faber, who works at a business close to where Richter was murdered and saw the drama unfolding.
"One of the field workers next to the dam saw one of them hiding in the reeds.
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