A tragic shooting accident on his Karoo farm claimed the life of Rufus Dercksen, 47, a member of a prominent Stellenbosch family.
Dercksen’s body was found by a farmworker on Saturday on his farm Brakwater, about 40km south of Beaufort West. He was to have spent the weekend on the farm. Dercksen ran a construction business in Stellenbosch,
Dercksen’s father, also called Rufus and his brother Niel, are lawyers at the Stellenbosch legal firm Rufus Dercksen and Partners.
Dercksen snr was a former mayor of Beaufort West and in the 1980s and early 1990s was a ministerial representative in the former national council.
Southern Cape police spokesperson captain Malcolm Pojie said the area where Dercksen’s farm was, was experiencing problems with baboons attacking cattle.
Dercksen probably went to investigate, but then presumably slipped in a riverbed after which a shot was discharged by his hunting rifle (of unknown calibre) and he was struck in the chest.
The incident happened between 08:00 and 12:45 but the precise time will be known only once the post-mortem results are revealed.
Dercksen’s wife, Elizma, his son Rufus, 10, and daughter, Augusta-Marie, 8, didn’t come to the farm with him but stayed home.
A woman who answered the telephone at Rufus Dercksen and Partners on Monday said Niel Dercksen was not available to talk to the media. Pojie said police had opened an inquest and that there were no indications of suicide.
[Story by Jan Gerber, Die Burger]
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