When the shooting finally stopped on a farm outside Robertson on Monday evening, police walked into the house and found something that has now turned a farm standoff into a national security investigation.
A diary.
Inside it, written out across five A4 pages, was a list of names. Well-known politicians. Businesspeople from around the country. Journalists who work as political commentators. All of them grouped under one label — enemies of the "Boerevolk".
According to entries in the same diary, the people on that list were to be "dealt with".
The man who wrote it was Cornelius van Dalen, shot dead by the police's special task force at the Top View farm at De Hoop after a standoff that had already dragged on for more than 24 hours. He is believed to have lived on the farm, alone, for about nine months.
Police Won't Say Who's On It
Major-General Bongani Maqashalala, the Western Cape head of detectives, was asked about the list on Tuesday and gave very little away.
He said it now forms part of a wider investigation into which groups Van Dalen belonged to, and whether the people named were facing a real threat to their lives.
The names will not be made public. Police say they do not want to cause panic.
What Else Was In The House
The diary was not the only thing officers carried out.
Police seized a modified AR-15 assault rifle fitted with an extended barrel and a suppressor, a shotgun, two pistols, fully loaded magazines and an arsenal of ammunition.
They also took several Vierkleur flags — the flag of the old Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek, a former Boer republic.
On the window of his bakkie was a small Vierkleur sticker, and beside it a symbol resembling the Sonnenrad, a design that has been taken up and used by neo-Nazi extremists.
Posting On Facebook While Police Surrounded Him
In the hours before he was killed, with police already on the farm, Van Dalen was online.
He posted on a local community Facebook page claiming gang members wanted him dead. He said it was because he had exposed them, and that those gang members had turned to corrupt police officers to have him killed.
He posted photographs and videos of the officers standing on his farm.
He claimed police had been sent there to steal his firearms, and that they were acting on the orders of cartel bosses who wanted him murdered.
Police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa flatly denied all of it.
How It Actually Started
The version from police is far simpler.
On Sunday evening, local officers received a complaint. A man had fired at a neighbour's vehicle.
The officers who drove out to respond were shot at. They called for backup.
Things got worse from there. The tactical response team was called in to try to calm the situation down — and they were shot at too. One member was hit in the shoulder and taken to a local hospital.
That was the point at which police had no choice but to call in the special task force.
Monday Evening
Task force members arrived at the farm on Monday afternoon.
Van Dalen, armed, fired at them relentlessly from inside the farmhouse. Potelwa said he used a shotgun, an assault rifle and pistols, among other weapons. A Nyala armoured vehicle was damaged in the barrage.
Before going in, the task force reached a nearby house and freed two women who were being held there.
Then they forced their way into the house where Van Dalen was. He was killed in the shootout that followed.
"An inquest docket has been opened," Potelwa said. "Officers from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate were also called to the scene."
By Tuesday afternoon, officers were still on the farm. The investigation was still running.
And police were still trying to do one more thing — find his family. As far as they know, there was nobody else living on that farm with him.
