Johannesburg - The mystery of the lion that was seen prowling the streets of Braamfontein has finally been solved.
The #BraamLion that was spotted in the early hours of Monday was part of a joint film shoot between J2 Entertainment and Sonia Sedibe Productions. But executive producer Sonia Sedibe was mum on what exactly they were shooting.
“It’s something big, which will be announced in a week or two,” she said on Wednesday.
While confusion about the legality of the shoot was rife on social media, it has now emerged that the production companies responsible did have a permit from the City of Joburg.
The Star has seen the permits, and the documents state the film crew was authorised to shoot from 8pm to 3am on April 10.
General manager for the Lion Park Whin Booysen confirmed that the lion was brought from the park.
“It was a real lion, but it’s one of our filming lions,” Booysen said.
The park’s website said the Lion Park has a “cast” of about 80 lions and employs wranglers (animal handlers) responsible for looking after the animals on set.
Booysen confirmed that wranglers were present on the set in the Braamfontein shoot.
Colombus, 17, now known as the #BraamLion, is popular in the film industry, having been a part of a variety of shoots for both feature films and advertisements. Animal trainers Alex and Shandor Larenty were both present at the shoot on Monday.
Shandor explained some of the precautions they took: “I can’t go into too much detail, but safety requirements in general include fencing off the areas and the roads. We use a special kind of fencing that is 1.8m high and we do safety checks before the lions come out.”
Joburg metro police spokesman Chief Superintendent Wayne Minnaar met the company responsible for the shoot.
“It was established at the meeting that a lion was used for filming in Braamfontein on the corner of Melle and Jorissen streets.
“There will be an investigation to see if the company complied with regulations to use the lion,” Minnaar said, adding that any applications would be withheld until the investigating officer was satisfied that all the regulations were met.
“Our officers are claiming that the company did not fully disclose that a lion would be used, but the company is saying they did disclose it.” - Additional reporting by Anna Cox
The Star