By Palesa Matlala
- Illegal recruiters train boys as young as 15 to poach animals for meat and body parts, which are sold for muti and food.
- One former poacher says he was whipped, starved and taught to kill during a brutal four-week training deep in the bush.
Teenage boys in Limpopo are being recruited into illegal poaching rings to feed their families, with some parents willingly sending them off to training camps as a way to survive.
Ralf Hlongwane, now 32, was just 15 when his late father arranged for him to be picked up by a poaching group. He thought it was his duty to help put food on the table.
“I didn’t know where I was going,” said Hlongwane. “It was pitch dark, the minibus kept picking up boys around my village until it was full.”
The recruits were taken to a remote area in Limpopo, far from police and park rangers. There, they were put through four weeks of harsh training. It included hunting, surviving in the wild, learning to kill, and being beaten for failing.
“On my first day, they gave me a rifle and 12 bullets. I came back with nothing. That night, every other recruit got to beat me with a bicycle tube – five lashes each,” he said.
They were led by a man known as “Ma-AK 47”, who warned them that failure would mean being locked in cages. The rules were simple: bring back any animal, just not a bird.
Driven by fear, Hlongwane quickly learned to hunt. He says he went days without food or water, learning to control his body and emotions. “I became fearless. I am not afraid to kill animals, or anyone who threatens my income,” he said.
Hlongwane later rose through the ranks to become a recruiter himself. He claims to have trained 43 boys and now works closely with sangomas who buy animal parts like claws, fat, skin, tusks and skulls for traditional medicine.
“The boys hunt. We sell the meat to butcheries. It’s all about survival,” he said.
The trade in wildlife parts continues to fuel illegal poaching, especially in areas around the Kruger National Park.
Andrew Desmet, a senior field ranger in the Mahlangeni section of the park, says rangers are trained to spot signs of poaching, including vultures circling over carcasses and hidden snares in the bush.
“Some poachers use animal parts like vulture skulls for muti. They sell them to sangomas in marketplaces, there’s money in it,” he said.
Desmet added that in some cases, poison-laced carcasses are used to target big cats like lions and leopards, whose body parts are in high demand.
Pictured above: A field ranger.
Image source: Palesa Matlala
