De Wet du Toit, a conservationist, has worked in anti-poaching units across the globe, and before returning to South Africa, he worked for four years in Mexico, protecting the world’s most rarest marine mammal, the vaquita marina, against poachers and wildlife smuggling cartels. With a new Hoedspruit-based initiative called Combat Systems, Du Toit aims to train rangers and civilians in the most up-to-date hand-to-hand combat techniques, developed by and used by the most elite military and law enforcement units around the world.

Du Toit was the first person to swim to Dyer Island, next to Gansbaai, one of the most infamous white shark hunting grounds in the world, to raise awareness for the dwindling shark numbers in South Africa and the continued use of shark-culling nets in KwaZulu-Natal. A documentary that features Du Toit and deals with the archaic use of shark-culling nets, called The Last Shark, premiered in the Western Cape recently.

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Du Toit says he has over 39 years of experience in mixed martial arts (MMA) and is a hand-to-hand combat instructor. According to him he has worked with and trained with Israeli counter-terrorist security operators. He also has an extensive arrest record during his time in antipoaching and has first-hand experience dealing with armed criminals in remote and hostile environments.

“A lot of ex-military people come into the bushveld and want to put the rangers through standard military contact drills that were developed in urban or desert environments, but the reality is that ranger work much more closely resembles law enforcement than it does military work. Even though we carry assault rifles and camouflage uniforms, as rangers, we have to arrest, rather than eliminate, our adversaries.

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That makes a big difference in how we should train,” he said. “Rangers in our area are surprisingly ill-equipped to deal with making arrests or in dealing with resistance during arrests. They have no efficient training for these scenarios. Unfortunately, that adds to the massive risks that rangers face daily. “We deal with knife, panga, spear, and firearm defense; with pistol and rifle retention when someone tries to violently disarm the ranger; and with arrest simulations, including teamwork and how to deal with volatile crowds.

We teach the ranger how to do grapple work, groundwork, some basic submission work, and then finally, how to finalise the arrest with minimum force,” adds Du Toit. “Our training is 100% realitybased, if it doesn’t work in a realistic, sparring environment, we don’t teach it,” Du Toit says. He also presents self-defence for children and adults. He says it is never too late or too early to start training, and anyone can master the skills as they are specifically designed to be easily transferred. Call Du Toit at 078 235 4691 for more information.