Two field rangers are still in a critical condition after being trapped in the fire that claimed the lives of 23 people
Fiona Macleod
The Kruger Park is looking into reports that disgruntled staff members started the run-away fire that killed 23 people and destroyed 60000ha of the world-famous reserve last week.
The atmosphere among some staff has literally become poisonous since park management started a restructuring process dubbed “Operation Prevail” earlier this year. At least 513 employees lost their jobs.
An official at Pretoriuskop camp in the reserve was rushed into intensive care at a Lowveld hospital last Friday after drinking two mouthfuls of coffee that contained poisoned sugar.
She suspects her beverage was laced after she witnessed an armed robbery at Pretoriuskop earlier in the week that she believes was an inside job. She has since received a number of death threats and is being closely guarded in hospital.
Another case of suspected poisoning of staff as a result of water in a kettle being spiked has been reported to police at Pretoriuskop.
South African National Parks (SANParks) has set up a commission of inquiry into the cause of last week’s fire. Other reports maintain it was sparked by a research team that failed to put out a controlled fire properly.
Victims of the disaster included 19 temporary contract workers who were cutting thatching grass, four park officials who tried to rescue them, 20 elephants, four rhinos and 30 impalas. Two field rangers are still in a critical condition in hospital.
Provincial conservation officials express fears that wildlife displaced by the fire will move out of the sanctuary of the Kruger. The veterinary control fence that separates the reserve from private and community lands in Northern Province and Mpumalanga has yet to be repaired in places after it was washed away by floods close on two years ago.
Mpumalanga Parks Board representative Gary Sutter says provincial officials have had to kill 34 elephants, 38 lions, 122 buffalos and 10 hippos that escaped from the Kruger in the past year alone. “Post-mortems on buffalos and lions showed a high incidence of bovine tuberculosis,” he says.
In the Northern Province, dilapidated fences at times see up to 100 rangers and other environment department employees deployed along the fenceline. Conflict between escapees and growing communal populations on the Kruger’s boundaries saw one community trapping 13 lions and chopping them into pieces late last month.
The damaged fences have also provided unethical hunting outfits with a golden opportunity to lure Kruger animals out of the reserve and sell them to foreign trophy hunters. Kruger officials, who have discovered donkeys tied to trees near the fenceline, recently launched a high-level investigation into the extent of the problem.
When animals escape from the Kruger they become the property of the landowners or provincial authorities on to whose land they migrate. This legal principle absolves the Kruger of any responsibility for the escapees or any damage they cause.
“The issue of compensation still needs to be taken up,” says Mukoni Ratshitanga, spokesperson for the Northern Province environmental affairs department. “One of these days a child is going to be eaten if we are not careful.”
Compensation for the victims of the Kruger fire and their families will be paid out of a special disaster fund. SANParks and the national Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism have each pledged R100000 to the fund.