Elephant harasser not hero ranger
Defamatory statements were made erroneously by Facebookers.
Screenshot from Facebook of the photograph of an elephant being harassed in the Kruger National Park that went viral.
A ranger at Timbavati Reserve who was named the best field ranger in Africa at the Rhino Conservation Awards in 2016 was falsely accused of harassing an elephant in the KNP this week, Lowvelder reports.
Irate people took to Facebook to condemn Anton Mzimba, who was wrongly identified as the driver of the white Toyota Corolla.
It has been established that the vehicle belongs to an A Mzimba who lives in Cork Trust – a community close to the Kruger Gate.
Brian Havemann, Timbavati head ranger, confirmed that Mzimba does not own a Toyota Corolla.
The incident was photographed by an erstwhile lecturer in photography, Joan Ryder Rathband, who lives in the UK. She put the frames together to emulate a video. She has since requested that it be taken down.
She wrote on Facebook that she was about to leave at Kruger Gate when an elephant crossed the road in front of the car with the registration number HKJ 003 MP at 17:17 on February 27.
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She witnessed the great speed at which the Toyota was travelling, as well as that the driver actually moved off the road to try and hit the elephant.
The driver of the Toyota then returned to the road and drove through the gate. She reported the incident to three security-gate assistants.
Mr William Mabasa, SANParks acting head of communications, told Lowvelder that it “is a pity that this person never brought it to our attention at the time and is only posting the video on social media a month later. I only saw it on Facebook this week and we are busy with the investigation to determine the owner of the car. We will take it from there.”
– Caxton News Service
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