A woman was reportedly injured by one of the white rhinos that escaped from the Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park (HiP) on Tuesday.
Residents near the game reserve were certain that three rhinos had escaped, however, Ezemvelo Wildlife said only two white rhinos escaped.
A resident said the rhinos were seen walking in among houses, reportedly endangering the lives of residents and destroying people’s fences.
“The woman was inside her yard when a rhino ran through the fence and went straight at her. She was injured on the leg and was rushed to hospital,” he said.
Ezemvelo spokesperson, Musa Mntambo, however, said they were still trying to verify what had happened to the woman.
“The stories that she was charged by a rhino are a lie. We are trying to find out if she was touched by the rhino or if it stepped on her.
“The reports from the hospital, however, indicate that she has no broken bones but we are still investigating,” said Mntambo.
He said they caught one of the rhinos yesterday.
“We are not sure at this stage, but the tracks show that the second rhino went back to the game reserve. We suspect they escaped from the reserve at the Umfolozi River but we are not sure.”
A member of the Nqulwane and Okhukho Community Committee, Similo Khanyile, said on Saturday, that a buffalo has escaped and last week they reported the escape of four elephants from HiP.
Khanyile said they are concerned that the animals are continually escaping endangering human lives.
“It is disturbing that the escaped buffalo incident was reported to HiP management and they dispatched the helicopter the next day, 21 hours later, and obviously could not find the reported buffalo as it had already moved away.
“The continual escape of wildlife from Hluhluwe Imfolozi Park has unfairly exposed us as local communities to varying incompetence and mismanagement which has caused us to question if Ezemvelo has a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and policies affecting and dealing with escaped wildlife animals,” said Khanyile.
Mntambo said there were reports of a buffalo that had escaped but they couldn’t find it. He also said there were no reports of elephants escaping from their system.
He said Ezemvelo was concerned about these animals escaping and that floods had contributed a lot to damaging the fence.
Mntambo said they have employed 94 people to fix the fence.
He added more people will be employed with some of them tasked with patrolling the fence on a regular basis to check for cuts and breaks in the fence.
In other news – Thobeka Majozi’s recent photo fuels pregnancy rumours
Mzansi rapper Cassper Nyovest and his baby mama, Thobeka Majozi, always try to keep their personal lives private. But when rumours of a second pregnancy emerged on Sunday 7 August, the Durban-born mom-of-one decided to respond.
The Instagram influencer, who shares baby Khotso with the Siyathandana rapper, casually posted a stunning picture of herself on Instagram with an inspirational caption. Learn More
