The sounds and sight of wild animals are not unusual to people who live in the village of Zwathini, Gluckstadt, near Vryheid. But lions certainly are.
On the afternoon of November 23, one of the residents, 27-year-old Sabelo Masondo, heard an unusual sound and within a blink of an eye, a lion emerged from the bushes and charged at him.
Shocked and frightened by the cat’s sudden appearance, he ran for his life. The lion chased him down as he tried to climb over the fence of a nearby peanut farm and the two came into contact, leaving Masondo scarred and unable to walk.
“I screamed all-out,” he remembered. “The lion grabbed me, tore my jeans and pierced my skin. I climbed higher and rolled over the other side of the fence,” said Masondo.
He recalled how he ran for help after scaling the fence. He was wounded, but his priority was to seek help. So he picked himself up and ran towards nearby houses.
“I entered my friend’s house without knocking and locked the door. They, too, were frightened by my actions,” he said.
“I was saved by the fence that separated the lion and myself. If it was not there, the lion would have got me. I wouldn’t be here to tell my story if it was not for that fence.
“My family would have just found my bones only,” he said.
The shoes he was wearing and the backpack he was carrying were left behind as he fled the beast. His family found the items the next day.
On the day of the attack, Masondo was on his way to meet his friend, Bongani Mhlongo, and then walk together to an evening church service.
Mhlongo watched from a distance as Masondo came head to head with Africa’s fiercest carnivore.
Zwathini village is surrounded by a number of games reserves which house elephants, impalas and giraffes. None keeps lions.
Masondo was discharged recently after two weeks in hospital. He was limping from his injuries when the Sunday Tribune visited him this week.
“I have never seen a lion before,” he said. “I have only seen a picture of one. I think that’s why, when it emerged, I got confused and wondered if I was really seeing a lion and within seconds it was attacking me.”
“I think when all this happened, I lost my mind,” he said.
He recalled how he became immune to the pain as he sprinted away, torn at by thorns and wounded by the lion’s claws and teeth.
Masondo said the village he grew up in all his life had become his greatest fear, and his home, his nightmare.
Surrounding communities have been warned to stay alert as the terror could be relived elsewhere, as the roaming lion remains on the loose - it has been for more than three months now.
“I will never forget what happened. The scars from the lion’s jaws are on my body, and they will always frighten and remind me of the attack. I am battling to sleep, I fear going to the toilet outside, and even walk on the street. I am the evidence that there’s a lion on the loose.” Masondo said the attack caused him loss of income as he was unable to work as a freelance photographer while injured.
This week, the Zwathini village community held a meeting to discuss issues related to the lone lion. Residents said they were disappointed with Ezemvelo Wildlife for failing to find it. They said it was first spotted by a truck driver when it was crossing the road three months ago.
“The lion will kill any of us, but if we as the residents were to kill it first, Ezemvelo would arrest us, which means they prefer human beings to die over the lion. If they were committed to finding this animal, they would have found it by now,” said Christmas Nyandeni.
Paul van Deventer, a manager at Mawana Game Reserve, said he recently received a destruction permit from Ezemvelo Wildlife which allows them to act should the lion be spotted.
“None of the game reserves in this area have lions,” said Van Deventer. “It’s not clear where this lion comes from. We enquired with other reserves, and none of them have acknowledged it.
“The trackers captured it in pictures, but unfortunately, the lion itself has not been found. We are doing all we can to find it for the safety of the community,” he said.
Captain Karl Erasmus of the Gluckstadt police station said the search continued.
Ezemvelo wildlife spokesperson Musa Mntambo said if anyone saw the lion, they must call Ezemvelo rangers.