Family and friends were gathered to offer support at the home of journalist Chris Louw, who was found dead on his farm near Hartbeespoort Dam in the North West on Tuesday.

"It's always a shock and of course he was an old colleague and friend," said Foeta Krige, who found Louw's body after he disappeared on Monday.

Krige said Louw went missing on Monday afternoon shortly after 2pm and the local neighbourhood watch searched for him in vain.

Krige, a former colleague of Louw, drove over to provide support to the family and he found Louw's body near the house on Tuesday morning. He had a shot to the head.

Police said that no foul play was suspected. Krige said they did not understand yet exactly why he died.

He said his former boss at Radio Sonder Grense had just secured a contract to write a book. He had however, been concentrating on a crime wave in the area in his most recent writings for Beeld newspaper and he was very worried about the subject.

Louw transformed the face of Afrikaans current affairs debates when he became executive producer at RSG and was a "very liberal Afrikaner", said Krige, who is now the producer of Monitor.

Earlier, the Freedom Front Plus's Pieter Mulder said: "The outspoken way in which Chris Louw had struggled with the problems of South Africa, resulted in nobody being indifferent to him."

Louw was known for his controversial open letter to the late Willem de Klerk entitled, "Boetman is die bliksem in [Boetman is angry]".

This was followed by a book, "Boetman en die swanesang van die verligtes [Boetman and the swansong of the liberals]". It became known as the "Boetman debate".

The letter to De Klerk, a National Party opinion-maker and brother of former president FW de Klerk, accused the older generation of Afrikaner leaders of political cowardice and deceit by sending the younger generation to war to defend apartheid.

Louw was also part of a group of South Africans who held meetings with the then-banned African National Congress in Senegal in 1987.

He was a journalist for several publications, including the Mail & Guardian, Farmers' Weekly, Vaderland and Oggendblad and wrote many articles for Beeld newspaper. Louw is survived by his wife, son and daughter.

Mulder continued: "I had great appreciation for the honest way in which he criticised others, but also himself. The fearless way in which he stormed at everything and everyone which he regarded as being dishonest, remains his big contribution to the South African debate."