Filabusi villagers on edge as loose lion preys on livestock

GOGO Janet Nkala has never seen her two grandkids so scared to the extent that they asked to sleep in the same bedroom with her hours after what they had witnessed in the afternoon.

The boys were so convinced the creature they had seen would drag them out of the blankets at night if they slept alone in their bedroom.

Efforts by the 70-year-old granny to calm their nerves with reassurances that they were safe at home fell on deaf ears.

Exactly what had the two teens seen out in the bush while rounding up the Nkala cattle from the grazing lands of Village D in the Tombo area in Filabusi?

"It's been a week and the boys are still convinced that they saw a lion. These days we leave our cattle to roam freely in the fields and grazing lands the whole day and round them up in the evening so the boys had gone to do that when they saw it (lion).

"At first I thought maybe they were imagining things but they were so convinced that what they saw was a lion," Gogo Nkala told the Saturday Chronicle at her home stead in Filabusi.

It's been two weeks of panic in the gold rich Filabusi area after multiple reports of sightings of a lion gone loose.

The sightings were first reported around the Mahole Business Centre mid-month when the lion attacked a cow.

Fear gripped the area that pupils from Pansikwe Primary School stayed away from school and park rangers were swiftly deployed to hunt down the lion.

Villagers were initially convinced that the lion, believed to have escaped from a reserve in Shangani, had at least one cub. It's an assertion that was, however, dismissed by ZimParks spokesman Tinashe Farawo who said the smaller prints next to the lion's spoor were in fact that of a jackal scavenging for spoils.

Villagers at Mahole Business Centre told Saturday Chronicle that rangers from ZimParks camped at Ekusileni Mission School while they tracked the lion. A worker at the school, Ngi Ndebele narrated how her daughter and son in law came face-to-face with the animal.

"My daughter and son-in-law saw the lion at a dam in Tombo while they were fetching water and they ran away. I have never seen my daughter so scared. She said the lion emerged from a thicket near the dam, glanced at them and walked away. They ran in the opposite direction and went back home. They said it was the scariest thing they have ever seen in their lives," said Ndebele.

After hearing her daughter's encounter with the lion, Ndebele alerted school authorities at Ekusileni Mission where she works as a cook to relay a message to learners to be vigilant when walking home.

"We were all scared and concerned for pupils who walk home after school. Everyone is on edge because the lion is still out there," she said.
So far, the big cat has reportedly killed a donkey and an ox.

Panic gripped the community when the lion first killed a donkey near the Marvel area then an ox close to Pangani Training Centre on the Filabusi-Silalatshani Road. The lion's spoor was first spotted by locals in the Amazon area on the highway to Zvishavane on 13 June.

The presence of rangers on the ground has done little to allay villagers' fears of more attacks on livestock and humans by the big cat.

"Our officers are on the ground tracking the problem animal. We are encouraging communities to minimise movement at night, especially driving their cattle in the dark," said Farawo from ZimParks.

Tombo headman Thabani Hlongwane is convinced that the lion has found sanctuary in one of the nearby farms.

"We have huge farms such as Wallingford and Waterfall Farms around here so it's possible the lion has found a place where it can roam around without being seen. It can kill a beast and spend days without moving so farmers have been advised to pen their livestock.

"We are also encouraging villagers to avoid walking at night as this exposes them to attacks," said Hlongwane.

Insiza Rural District Council chief executive officer Shepherd Tshuma said more reports of sightings of the lion in different parts of Filabusi keep coming to his office.

"The latest news on the lion is that it was seen in the Gangabezi area just yesterday (Wednesday) although we haven't heard of anyone losing their livestock in that area. The other day I joined the rangers using my personal vehicle when we heard that the lion had been spotted in the Silalatshani area. Our major concern is that of school kids who have to walk to and from school daily. I'm sure the rangers are doing all they can to track down the animal," said Tshuma.