Nearly R20-million changed hands at Limpopo Tourism and Parks Boards’ first game auction at the weekend, according to a statement issued on Monday.
The ”catalogue auction” in Polokwane, on Saturday, saw the sale of 3 600 head of antelope from 15 of Limpopo’s 17 provincial parks, raking in R19,5-million.
The highlight was the auctioning of 42 roan antelope, which cost R6,8 million.
”Despite the withdrawal [from the auction] of animals from the Manyeleti and Letaba Ranch areas, due to the foot and mouth diseases threat, 3 600 head of game were sold,” said spokesperson Eva Ratau.
General manager of the Limpopo Parks Board, Sisixon Hlungwani, told the Mail & Guardian Online that the decision to host the auction was based purely on profitability.
”It’s not that different, before we used to allocate the excess animals to trophy hunting and culling, now some of the excess have been allocated for auctions,” said Hlungwani.
”The majority of the animals have been bought by game farmers from Limpopo as transporting these animals can be very costly.”
Capturing of the auctioned animals is scheduled to start this week. – Sapa