A spirit of fear has swept over the village of Makuya Musunda as a herd of elephants from the Makuya Park keeps returning to the area. The animals had already been taken back to the park earlier this month, but the park's rangers seem to battle to keep the elephants confined.
The elephants, including a calf, were first spotted last Friday (11 March). Rangers were called in and eventually managed to get them back to the park. One of the elephants, however, had to be shot after it became aggressive. The meat was shared among the villagers and other surrounding villages.
Everyone was happy and relieved again, thinking that the elephants had returned to the park for good, but only a few days later the animals were spotted in the area again. Villagers are too afraid to go out to their fields or look for their livestock, and do not dare venture out at nightfall.
Mr Simon Masala, a local farmer, said they had had many wild animals from the park straying into their fields over the years. "We are no longer safe here. We are living in fear. Year in and year out this happens. If it is not elephants, it is buffalo. The fence at the park is damaged and the Big Six roam around freely, endangering our lives, our livestock and our farm produce. Government is failing us. They are not doing anything to protect us," he said. Masala said he had suffered immense losses on his farm because of the stray elephants.
Another resident, Mr Joseph Munzhelele, also blamed the government for not taking care of the park. "The fence is full of holes and [the] government is doing absolutely nothing to get it fixed," he said.
Mr Africa Kwinda, the local traditional leader, said they had complained about it, but nothing was being done to protect them from the wild animals.
Limpopo Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism spokesperson Zaid Kalla said they responded to every sighting reported as their priority was to safeguard the community. "Some stray animals return to their habitat areas, but unfortunately some do not, and we have to put them down. Our rangers patrol the affected areas daily and we do get reports of elephants collapsing the fence to get to the other side. We regularly re-erect the collapsed fence along the patrol area. Our call to the community is to continue to notify the authorities on stray wildlife," he said.