Where you have prey animals you have predators.  The flourishing game populations mean that there are many young impala, springbok, eland, etc., as well as the calves and lambs of domestic stock.  Big cats aren’t an unusual sight: though I didn’t encounter any lion, I asked about them and was told that “…occasionally one passes through.” We did see cheetah.  Cheetah are considered vermin because they prey on domestic and wild stock, thereby costing landowners money.  Since CITES rules allow only a few cheetah to be taken each year for trophies, the remaining ones have negative value to ranchers and are shot on sight or trapped: more than once I was instructed that if I saw a cheetah I was to shoot it!  To an American indoctrinated with Endangered Species Act propaganda this came as a bit of a shock, but I was prepared to follow instructions should the opportunity arise.  I did have a chance but was so startled by Cornie’s hissed instructions, “A cheetah! Shoot it!” that I muffed things and failed to get my rifle up in time before the beast decided he’d better leave.  Later I did pop one black-backed jackal (another “nuisance species”) but no other indiscreet cheetah presented himself as a candidate for "termination with prejudice."