In 2002 I hunted for about 2-1/2 weeks in the Northern and Eastern Cape, among other animals getting a very good Cape kudu on the huge Eastern Cape ranch belonging to an uncle of the young assistant PH. After getting the kudu, he took us on a little tour of his house, showing us the "safe room" where he and his foreman slept every night with several automatic weapons and Dobermans. The wall were a couple feet thick, and the door was all-steel and several inches thick.
In 2007 I hunted in the Northern Cape with the same PH, by then the head game biologist on an even bigger ranch. I asked how his uncle was doing, and it turned out he and the foreman were murdered by a gang from the local tribal "homeland." It turned out the safe room door never got locked that night, for whatever reason. There was some suspicion of ranch employees being involved as well.
I hunted in RSA a number of times from 1992 to 2013, without the slightest hint any personal trouble, but if I go back to Africa again for plains game will probably go to Namibia instead of RSA. Or maybe Botswana, now that some politicians have started to regain their senses about hunting and the local economy.
