An 83-year-old farmer, his family and a farm worker have been attacked by eight men pretending to buy cattle in the Welkom district.
A police spokesman, Captain Stephen Thakeng, said the incident had happened at the farm Doornlaagte at about 12.15pm on Wednesday.
"They pretended to buy cows and when they were at the kraal the eight men attacked the farmer and a farm worker," said Thakeng
The farmer, Cornelius Cronje, and worker David Mei, 30, were tied up with a plastic rope and left at the kraal before the men moved to the house.
Thakeng said the men had overwhelmed Anna Marie Cronje, 85, and her daughter, Petronella, 53, in the house. They had been tied up and forced to lie on the dining room floor.
"The suspects demanded money and firearms."
He said at one stage Cronje had been fetched from the kraal and taken to the house.
The attackers had eventually taken two handguns and an undisclosed amount of cash from a safe.
Thakeng said Mei had managed to free his hands and call for help from a nearby farm.
The eight attackers had driven off in a yellow Isuzu bakkie with a white canopy.
Cronje had sustained injuries to his head from a blunt object and his wife had sustained injuries to her hands.
They had been admitted to a Welkom hospital. - Sapa