BEAUFORT West police arrested a foreman who allegedly used a hunting rifle to kill an 85-year-old woman and two men on a farm near the town on Saturday.

Western Cape police said the incident was sparked by an argument between the white foreman and “the workers” at their house, “after which he allegedly shot the three coloured victims with a hunting rifle” at about 1pm.

Police said 85-year-old Lena Nuwegeld and Hendrik September, 64, were both shot in the head inside the house, and Mannetjie John, 38, was shot outside in the head, chest and leg.

The 37-year-old foreman would appear in the Beaufort West Magistrate’s Court today on three charges of murder.

No further details were available and the investigation was continuing, police added.

Western Cape Agriculture MEC Gerrit van Rensburg said he was “shocked and saddened” by the killings, as well as the murder of a farmer in Ceres at the weekend.

Van Rensburg said a “work-related fight led to the foreman entering a labourer’s cottage” and shooting dead all three victims on the farm Nooitgedacht, about 25km from Beaufort West.

He said police were still trying to contact the owner yesterday.

In the other incident, PM Cilliers was fatally shot four times in a scuffle with robbers at his back door on the farm Lorraine outside Ceres. Nothing was stolen.

Provincial Community Safety MEC Lennit Max said the gang would be “hunted and arrested”.

“Arguments can never be settled with weapons and threats. No one has the right to take the life of any person and any such offender will answer to the courts.”