Durban - Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park workers who witnessed their colleague being crushed to death by an elephant are traumatised at the sight.
Thembisile Mchunu, 47, of Ngwelezane, Empangeni, died on Tuesday after being attacked by an elephant while inspecting alien plants.
It is reported that they were on their way out of the park when a herd of elephants approached.
Amon Sithole, one of the workers with Mchunu, said the incident happened shortly after they had completed their inspection. “We had gone right inside the park and had left our car quite far away. One of the elephants made a sound and we thought it was warning the other ones that it had spotted human beings.
“After that it sprinted towards us and before we knew it, it was quite close to us,” said Sithole.
“We ran in different directions. Thembisile was behind one of us when she tripped and the elephant caught up with her.
“A witness said the elephant lifted her up before dropping and crushing her,” he said.
Sithole said they had heard her cry once before there was silence. They ran and contacted their superiors, who then called the police.
“When we went back, she was already dead and the elephant was nowhere to be seen. We are very sad,” said Sithole. “She has been a hard worker here for the past 12 years.”
Musa Mntambo, spokesman for Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife, said their workers were trained in how to handle animals. “No one can predict how an animal will react when it sees human beings. The deceased is one of our managers in the alien plant division and they were out doing some inspection work. The problem is they saw the elephant when it was too close, making it difficult for them to escape and it then targeted the woman.
“We are not sure what provoked the animal, but elephants are aggressive when it’s mating season. It is also possible it got scared. We send condolences to her family, we will help the family to carry the funeral expenses,” said Mntambo.
Mntambo said this was the second such incident at the park. The first one was in 2006.
Hluhluwe police are investigating.
Daily News