Oct. 4, 2015
All Female Anti-Poaching Team Acclaimed for Saving Lives
C.Ngobeni and F. Mogakane PHOTO: Courtesy/UNEP/Sari Goodfriend
Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from Global Information Network
(TriceEdneyWire.com) - Saving the rhinos was probably farthest from the imagination of Collet Ngobeni and Felicia Mogakane when they were making their career choices.
Yet an offer to join South Africa’s first all-female anti-poaching team won them over instantly.
Ngobeni, 30, and Mogakane, 27, are two of the original members of the 24-strong Black Mambas, a group set up in 2013 to protect the private Balule wildlife reserve, a park that borders the Kruger National Park, and its resident rhinos.
Both women saw this as an opportunity to play in role in conservation in South Africa.
The team, which does not carry guns, has been praised for reducing snaring by 76% in the reserve, saving the lives of rhinos whose horns are highly prized on the black market, and putting poachers out of action. In the last 10 months the reserve has not lost a rhino, while a neighboring reserve lost 23.
The reserve uses a team of 29 armed guards, 26 unarmed Black Mambas, and an intelligence team that seeks to stop the poachers before they can kill. The Mambas’ main job is to be seen patrolling the fence. They also set up listening posts to hear vehicles, voices and gunshots and patrol the reserve on foot, calling in the armed guards whenever they find something.
This week, wearing camouflage uniforms, black angle boots and large hoop earrings, the women picked up the Champions of the Earth award, U.N.’s top environmental prize.
“My mother said I shouldn’t take this job as it was for men and I’d be killed, but I wanted people, and my daughter, to respect me,” said Ngobeni, mother of 4-year-old Nesakelo.
“All people from my country need to protect our nature and our heritage. This is for our future generations,” she said.
The two women are on their first trip outside South Africa just as the United Nations kickstarts a 15-year global plan to end poverty, empower women and combat climate change.
The Black Mambas patrol the Balule reserve for 21 days at a time, walking up to 20 kilometers a day as they check fences and seek out poachers, their trails, camps and snares.
“We’re called the Black Mambas because we can bite and we can strike as fast as lightening,” Mogakane told the Reuters news service with a laugh.