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BUSHBUCKRIDGE- A stray rhino was rescued on Tuesday from villagers who wanted to kill it for its meat.

Rangers from the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency rescued the rhino in Cunningmore village in Limpopo.

One resident, Velly Mnisi, 33, said he was on his way to work about 07h00 when the rhino came charging towards him and broke through the fence of a mealie field and destroyed crops.

Mnisi said he ran for his life and shouted at other villagers, telling them to flee. But residents, including school children, later banded together and chased the rhino.

Mnisi said: "They were shouting: Kill it! Kill it! It destroyed our crops. We want its meat!"

He said the villagers began throwing stones at the rhino and waving hoes, axes, pangas, sticks and jungles knives.

Animal not harmed

Mnisi said another local resident, Richard Khosa, 46, contacted police, who alerted game rangers.

Mpumalanga tourism and parks agency (MTPA) spokesperson Jimmy Masombuka confirmed on Thursday that rangers had removed a white rhino from the area after anaesthetising it.

"I don't have all the details with me, but the animal was not harmed. It was taken to one of our parks."

Masombuka said officials had not established where the rhino had escaped.

"There was speculation that it was from the Kruger National Park because of its proximity to the area, but we are not sure," he said.

Kruger Park spokesperson William Mabaso said: "I am told that we were not directly involved, but one of our investigators contacted the MTPA which removed the animal."

Labels: acornhoek, bushbuckridge, escaped animals, poaching, rhinos

HOEDSPRUIT- A group of ten educational volunteers has recently arrived in Hoedspruit from the United States, the UK and Australia. Employed by the local not-for-profit organisation Amazwi (meaning “voices” in Zulu) the volunteers bring experience in writing, editing, publishing, photography, public relations, and marketing.



The organisation was established by Maggie Messitt in 2004, and will open a School of Media Arts (SOMA) in March 2007. SOMA will offer an adult certificate program with training in narrative journalism to unemployed women from Acornhoek and other local communities.

Several of the volunteers will also participate in the Amazwi Writers & Artists Residency Program, while others will spend their time in Hoedspruit establishing "A. Magazine"- Africa’s first non-fiction literary journal.

Amazwi was recently awarded a grant from the Lonely Planet Foundation, part of the world’s largest travel information company. The grant money, equivalent to approximately US$15,000 or 105,000 ZAR, will be used to establish a regional narrative-form newspaper. This publication will serve as the cornerstone of curricula for Amazwi’s School of Media Arts (SOMA).


Amazwi volunteers enjoy a traditional meal in Rooiboklaagte, a section of Acornhoek, during a community tour.

Messitt and her volunteers have moved into their new offices in Hoedspruit. In addition to headquartering the South African/U.S. organization’s operations, this space will also host the first class of the Amazwi School of Media Arts (SOMA). Amazwi’s offices are located at Hoedspruit Crossing, next to Imagine Africa Safaris.


Thoko Makwakwa, sangoma (traditional healer) and local tavern owner, teaches Amazwi volunteers about throwing the bones. Photo by Sheri Booker.

For more information on Amazwi, please visit their Web site: www.amazwi.org.

Labels: acornhoek, bushbuckridge, development, hoedspruit

NELSPRUIT- A geographical names committee has been set up in the densely populated Bushbuckridge area and is expected to consider changing the names of about 40 villages.

Bushbuckridge, which was recently transferred from Limpopo to Mpumalanga, has a population of about a million, most of whom live in deep rural villages.



"We are expecting many people to come forward and raise their concerns as we have realised that many villages' names have to be changed because they have no meaning or relation to their historical backgrounds," said Zondi Mkhabele of Bushbuckridge local municipality.

He said the name of Bushbuckridge itself could change.

Name of police station

At a recent public meeting, an elderly resident called Mabel Nkuna, 79, suggested that Bushbuckridge's name be changed to Khwahlamba and that a statue be erected in honour of King Ma'nyeleti.

She said Bushbuckridge was the name of the first police station that was built by white people on Masana hill in the early 19th century because the nearest police station at the time was 25 km away in Graskop.

She said King Ma'nyeleti was a great leader who led four peoples - the Mahlangana, Swazi, Mapulane and Tsonga- and that he had referred to the area as Khwahlamba. She said the king's ancestors also had used this name.

"Ma'nyeleti was one of the kings in the Mnisi royal kingdom who fought with whites in the Lebombo and Drakensberg mountains and who also summoned thundering rain when there was drought," said Nkuna.

She said the drought had stretched from Mashishing to Pilgrim's Rest, Bushbuckridge and even Badplaas.

Nkuna explained that the king was friends with King Sekhukhune of the Pedi people during the Anglo-Boer war and helped hide some of his people.

'Shooting star'

She said Ma'nyeleti was killed when a bull elephant trampled him.

She said Ma'nyeleti literally meant "the shooting star" because a star fell from the sky the night he was born in a kraal, less than a kilometre from where the Kruger National Park and Manyeleti Game Reserves are today.

Nkuna said the name of the game reserve should be corrected to Ma'nyeleti instead of Manyeleti.

Labels: bushbuckridge, hoedspruit, manyeleti, restitution

BUSHBUCKRIDGE- Four lions were still on the loose in the Bushbuckridge area of Limpopo, the provincial department of environmental affairs said.

The department had already shot dead five of them after they apparently escaped from a private game reserve last week.

"I can confirm that we have put down five lions, they were threatening people's lives in that area," said spokesman Moses Tseli.

"We can't equate human lives with that of animals. We call on the communities in that area, when confronted by those lions, not to chase or provoke them," he added.

Kruger Park spokesman Raymond Travers said the lions could have come from one of any number of small private game reserves between the park and Bushbuckridge.

It would not be possible to say where they came from as no reserve branded or marked its lions.

Calson Magopane, a spokesman for the Dumphries community, said on Friday that the lions had already devoured cattle belonging to residents.

"The situation is very terrible. The community members are living with fear as these lions are still around."

Labels: bushbuckridge, escaped animals, lions