Worker dies after lion attack

A Limpopo game lodge worker has died after he was attacked by lions that escaped from a neighbouring reserve.

Justice Cebekhulu, 46, and a colleague were cutting wood near the Lion Treetop Lodge in Hoedspruit when two white lions escaped from their enclosure.

Lion Treetop Lodge is renowned for its "walking with white lions" experience.

The attack has drawn criticism from conservationists, who have slammed captive lion breeding.

Lion Treetop Lodge owner, West Mathewson said the attack which he said occurred because the lions wanted to play, was the first of its kind at his establishment.

He said the lions escaped after climbing a tree and jumping over the fence of their enclosure.

"We are devastated by what has happened," Mathewson said.

He said, in his opinion, Cebekhulu had not been mauled.

"The lions are incredibly playful and we believe they wanted to play with Justice and his colleague."

Mathewson said they had gathered from Cebekhulu's colleague that the men ran away when they saw the lions - "which is the worst thing to do".

"As they ran, the lions took down Justice. There was a scuffle on the ground. Justice's colleague shouted at them and they ran off. If they were aggressive and had wanted to kill him, they would have done so within five seconds.

"Justice, who I believe only had minor injures, was airlifted to hospital where my business partner visited him every day. When he was seen on Saturday he was sitting up and chatting. He was excited to be going home soon."

He said when his partner returned to the hospital on Monday, he was told Cebekhulu had died.

"We were told he died from natural causes, and not from his injuries."

Mpumalanga health department spokesman Dumisani Malamule confirmed Cebekhulu had died from natural causes, not from the injuries sustained in the lion attack but would not release the cause of death saying it "would contravene patient confidentiality".

Mathewson said in the two years he had operated his "walking with lions" tours, the two-year-old lions had never attacked anyone.

"They are not aggressive. We are back to doing walks with these lions and have not had anything go wrong this week."

Mathewson said he would fight attempts to put down the lions. "That is not going to happen."

The attack has drawn criticism from nature conservationists, with Linda Tucker of Global White Lion Protection Trust saying such practices (walking with lions) were a disaster waiting to happen.

"It just happens to have happened here. But you can be sure it will happen elsewhere," she said.

Tucker said her organisation was against all captive-lion keeping, regardless of its purpose.

"This is not the first time this has happened and there will be more such incidents if captive-lion keeping is allowed to continue."

She said in August last year 12-year-old Nkalamelo Latha was killed at Otavi Game Park near Parys, in the Free State, when he was taken into a lion enclosure.

"Last year, a tourist was killed by a lion after opening her window at the Lion Park. This followed the death of a Protrack anti-poaching officer after captive lions, which had suffered brutality, were released into a reserve."