I was looked after by a guardian angel, says game ranger

Moments after he was bitten by a black mamba in 2015, Innocent Buthelezi said a fervent prayer. As he prayed, he said he felt the presence of God. 

“Immediately, if you’re a believer in God, the first thing you’re going to do is start praying,” said Buthelezi, a section ranger at a private game reserve in Limpopo. “Throughout the whole process, I was praying.” 

He spent five days in the intensive care unit at MediClinic Nelspruit, undergoing treatment. 

“I remember one day, all the nurses had left, they had taken all my details and given me the anti-venom but then after everybody left, there was one nurse who came in, she was wearing white, and they told her to please look after me.” 

Buthelezi was in agony. He couldn’t swallow his saliva because the snake’s neurotoxic venom had partially shut down his nervous system. A tube had to be administered to suck out the saliva accumulating in his throat. “But the nurse that was sitting next to me, I said to her, ‘Can we please pray?’ She held my hand and we prayed.”

After being discharged, he returned to the hospital to thank the nurses who had cared for him. “I asked for that particular nurse and they told me, ‘We don’t know who you are talking about.’ I told them she was wearing white and they told me, ‘We don’t wear white at this hospital.’ 

“Everybody I’ve told that story to tells me that that was probably my guardian angel that was sent to look after me.”

Buthelezi takes a pragmatic view regarding the snake. “That’s one of God’s creatures. Me, myself, I’m one of God’s creations. I still find snakes fascinating and respect them and I’m still in conservation, regardless of that incident that landed me in ICU. I could have lost my life but here I am, still doing what I love doing.”

For Buthelezi, who is a member of the Game Rangers Association of Africa and a committee member of its South African chapter, Christianity underpins his work in nature. “I have faith in God’s word, in all his doings in our lives, and in my life in particular.”

Working as a game ranger is dangerous, with ever-present threats from wildlife and poachers “so you need God as a guide and as a protector”. Anything can happen in the bush and one’s senses need to be heightened, he said. 

“I always say animals have a mutual respect for us, if we have a mutual respect for them.” 

Sometimes, the “unexpected happens” — being charged by a lion, leopard, buffalo or an elephant. “But I think just having that belief and that faith in God, that he’s your protector, that you go out there and that you’re going to come back in one piece. While guns protect you, there is a higher, overarching protector protecting you.” 

Nature is God’s creation, Buthelezi said. “What are we without the environment? The environment can survive on its own, without man, who has done a lot of damage [to nature] … Without the environment there is nothing, there is no Earth.

“So, to be one of those people who have been chosen by God to protect the environment, that’s a big purpose in life. 

“People like myself, who are passionate about conservation, we’re not doing it just for the sake of getting a salary, we do it out of love, passion and purpose. 

“To be protecting the environment, that’s the biggest purpose that God can put on anyone’s shoulders.”

Tsakana Nxumalo is part of the Black Mambas, the all-female anti-poaching unit founded by Transfrontier Africa in 2013 to safeguard critical areas in the greater Kruger National Park.

Nxumalo, also a member of the rangers’ association, said her capabilities, self-belief and confidence stem from her Christian upbringing. 

“It’s about trusting that God is there, that God will keep me safe while out in the bush because there are a lot of situations, for us as the Black Mambas, that are more dangerous sometimes, because we do our jobs unarmed.”

The 27-year-old, who joined the unit in 2019, relayed how she and a fellow ranger passed a pride of lions 30m away, while patrolling on foot. “We didn’t see anything, we just passed the lions and got to a point where we came across buffaloes. 

“And then when we reported, because the buffaloes were near the fenceline [protecting the reserve] where we had to pass. We were told to go back and take the vehicle.”

That’s when they saw the lions. 

“We were asking each other, ‘Did we pass here and, if we really passed here, were they there? Were they looking at us and following us?’ We got to a point where we were just like, ‘If there’s anybody who doesn’t believe that God lives, then that person is very stupid.’”

Nxumalo cites the biblical scripture of Daniel in the lion’s den. 

“He was able to close the lion’s mouth and, if God could do that for Daniel, the belief I have in him is that he can do it for me also. 

“The minute I enter inside the reserve, this is where the lions are, this is where the elephants are, this is where other rangers were killed by elephants and devoured by lions.

“But I’m still going there because I believe I’m still making a difference, that my children and your children tomorrow won’t have to just read about animals in books, magazines and see them on TV, but will come and experience the nature that I’ve been saving.”

Nxumalo said her religion is intertwined with her belief “that I’m doing good and that God is going to see me through and that we are there together”. 

Growing up, her parents taught her God would never take her anywhere where his grace couldn’t locate her. 

“So, wherever he takes me, he will be there … If he allowed me to get a job as a Black Mamba where they’re not using weapons, where there is the Big Five, where I have to go inside the reserve and walk, that means his grace is going to see me through.” 

Reginah Smith, a ranger corporal in the Pilanesberg National Park, was brought up in a Christian home but draws deeply on her own spirituality.  

“Religion is more a set of organised beliefs, usually shared by a community or group, whereas spirituality, it’s more of an individual practice and has to do with having a sense of peace and of purpose and I believe that’s where I am,” she explained.

“When reality kicks in, and things are happening, you cannot just be saying that all is good in the name of God and so forth. You also need to believe in yourself, to trust your instincts and be meditating.” 

People were given the responsibility by God to “work as stewards of his creations, to care for, manage, oversee and protect all that he owns”, said Smith, who is an adjutant of the Pilanesberg Rhino Protection Unit and a member of the game rangers’ association.

That’s where rangers come in. “When there’s one rhino down, people do not understand the emotions, to say, ‘Why do you have to cry, why do you have to beat yourself up?’ Now when I say, ‘If I’m put in as a steward to care for and protect the species, and one … is being poached, I feel that I have failed.’ 

“That’s why I ended up being more spiritual than the Christian part of it. The Christian part of it is ‘us together, saying all will be well’, but when you go back, you then adapt to the life you’re living.”

Smith spends 98% of her life doing her job and lives inside the park with her family. 

“That, on its own, for me, is priceless,” she said. “I’m honoured and privileged because I get to also be strong as a leader, having other rangers that depend on you for guidance and everything.”