Safari operators hail President

A TOP safari operator in the Greater Mapungubwe Transfrontier Conversation Area ( GMTFCA), Mr Digby Bristow, has hailed President Emmerson Mnangagwa for fighting corruption in all sectors of the economy.

Mr Bristow, who operates Sentinel-Limpopo Safaris in Beitbridge, a component of the GMTFCA, a vast safari area jointly-owned by Zimbabwe, South Africa and Botswana, said poaching continues to be a major challenge in the area due to corruption.

The three countries signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on June 22, 2006 to establish the mega game park.

“President Emmerson Mnangagwa is pro-wildlife and we hope he will come up with friendly tourism policies such as zoning wildlife areas in light of poaching which continues to be a threat to tourism, particularly at Mapungubwe TFCA,” he said.

“However, since the new government led by President Mnangagwa came in we have noticed vast improvements in the fight against corruption and police themselves are now very much in support of us. Poachers that have come in more recently have been sentenced and we are very happy to see that.”

Last week, two men from Beitbridge believed to be part of a syndicate of poachers that has been targeting wild animals in the GMTFCA were jailed for an effective 12 months in jail each by Beitbridge magistrate, Mr Godswill Mavenge. The poachers targeted baby impalas in the GMTFCA. Lightmore Muleya (20) and Votemore Singo (21) both of Toporo Village under Chief Sitauze were also ordered to each pay $3 500 as restitution to Sentinel Safaris.

Mr Bristow said they are losing an average of 30 animals, particularly impalas and elands, monthly.

Organised poaching syndicates involving villagers from neighbouring Maramani area are wreaking havoc at Sentinel-Limpopo Safaris where they are mainly targeting baby impalas.

Mr Bristow said the poachers stray into the property at night under the cover of darkness.

“The big challenge that we are facing here at Sentinel is poaching where villagers from neighbouring Maramani area and other surrounding communities come at night mainly with torches and dogs to hunt down wildlife targeting mainly impalas, eland and kudus. The dogs are very efficient at tracing and catching the animals, which they then blind with spotlights and spear to death before loading the carcass onto donkeys and ferrying the meat,” he said.

Mr Bristow said despite night patrols that have seen some of the suspects being arrested, poaching continues unabated resulting in a decline in wildlife populations in the safari area.

“The poachers are very sophisticated and generally, these are people from the local community who operate as a commercial syndicate. We, as tourist operators, would like to protect the wildlife so that tourists can come and look at them. People come from overseas not to see our cattle, sheep or any other domesticated animals. They come to see our wildlife and if we don’t protect them it would be disastrous for our economy. We have the Greater Mapungubwe TFCA whose draw card is our wildlife and if we lose our wildlife we have got nothing for the tourists,” he said.

“This area used to be very rich in wildlife and in the past we used to have big herds of elephants, elands, impalas and a pride of lions, hyenas, cheetahs and leopards. Sadly poachers have been targeting animals such as eland and their numbers have gone down considerably. The population of our impalas has also gone down due to poaching.”

Two years ago, a lioness and 41 endangered whitebacked vultures were found dead after they were poisoned at Sentinel-Limpopo Safaris.

The endangered vultures feasted on the carcass of a lioness that was allegedly poisoned with strychnine.

Strychnine is a highly toxic, colourless compound used as a pesticide, particularly for killing small vertebrates such as birds and rodents.

It was suspected that a disgruntled cattle farmer from the neighbouring Maramani village was behind the poisoning.

Mr Bristow said as part of the Greater Mapungubwe TFCA anti-poaching exercise, they have roped in scouts from Mapungubwe National Park in South Africa and the Tuli Block in Botswana to jointly fight cross-border poaching. — @mashnets