A green mamba possesses venom that is roughly equal in potency to that of the black mamba.
According to a report on Friday, Sarie Senekal (76) was in a critical condition after being bitten by a black mamba she was trying to fend off with insecticide and a broomstick.
Senekal was airlifted to the Polokwane Provincial Hospital in a critical condition on Monday afternoon, Beeld reported.
According to her daughter, Frieda, the snake bit her mother in a neighbour's flat after she tried to evict it with a can of fly spray and a broom handle.
"She apparently tried to beat the snake to death with the broom before it bit her twice on the leg. She called me and said: 'My child, a snake bit me.'"
She was on a ventilator in the high-care unit in the hospital.
Another snake incident
In a separate incident, an elderly woman from Polokwane is in a serious but stable condition after she was bitten by an Egyptian cobra that had crawled into her daughter's car, reported the Citizen newspaper.
Sannie Roos (74) was in the intensive care unit in Medi-Clinic Limpopo.
She was picked up by her daughter after a shopping trip, and after they drove off she felt a sharp pain in her foot.
She was taken to hospital and the snake was later found hiding in the car's air vent. – Sapa