By Vuyisile Hlatshwayo
Wildlife moving from the direction of Harloo Private Reserve in KwaZulu-Natal has, residents say, repeatedly crossed into Eswatini, destroying crops and killing livestock in four communities along the southern border. The reserve’s own price list shows hunters are charged as much as US$8,950 [about E116,000] for certain animals. Yet an Eswatini villager who kills protected game to defend a field can face a mandatory minimum prison sentence of two years. Neither Eswatini nor South Africa has pointed to a compensation mechanism for the affected communities — a gap officials have now acknowledged.
In Mgampodo, eChibini, Vuvu and Somntongo, residents say the damage has become part of daily life: maize fields are raided, goats and calves are killed, and children are escorted to school for fear of wild animals moving through nearby bushes. Eswatini’s wildlife law protects game and punishes those who kill it, but it does not provide a statutory route for villagers to recover the value of crops and livestock lost to wildlife.
When Sipho Khumalo walked through his half-hectare maize field near Mgampodo stream, he found the crop he had hoped would feed his family flattened and eaten. He and other residents along Eswatini’s southern border say bush pigs, warthogs and other wildlife crossing from nearby Harloo Private Game Reserve in South Africa have repeatedly destroyed crops and killed livestock — losses for which they say no one compensates them.
“All my hard-earned money spent on maize farming has gone to waste this farming season. As an unemployed person, largely depending on piece jobs, I really don’t know where my family’s next meal will come from. Bush pigs and warthogs have destroyed all my maize crop,” Khumalo said, gesturing to the extensive crop damage in his maizefield measuring 0.5 hectares situated near the Mgampodo stream snaking toward the game reserve across the border.
Across the border, Harloo Private Reserve markets wildlife as both tourism and trophy.
The reserve lies in KwaZulu-Natal’s uPhongolo Local Municipality, just across Eswatini’s southern border. It markets hunting safaris, photographic tours and accommodation to international clients, with some game priced in US dollars. A bush pig is listed at US$580. Less than 26 nyala are listed at US$1,100. A Cape buffalo is listed at US$8,950.
The price list does not prove that Harloo is legally responsible for each loss described by residents. But it shows the imbalance that angers the communities: animals with cash value on the South African side of the border become an uncompensated burden when they damage crops and livestock on the Eswatini side.
Questions were emailed to Harloo Private Reserve owner Edmond Rouillard about whether the reserve has a compensation mechanism for affected communities in Eswatini. He did not respond.
In Somntongo, Mantji Tsabedze’s tractor sits broken down in his yard. He says wildlife raids have pushed neighbours off their fields year after year. What was once farmed is now fallow.
The losses, he says, do not end with maize.
“Cattle and goats are our mobile banks,” Tsabedze said. “They are our main source of food and income. We sell them to raise money for maize meal, school fees, transport, and healthcare.” He describes the losses in two registers: bush pigs and warthogs in the crops; hyenas and jackals taking calves, kids, and goats. Many of the affected residents are elderly, managing hypertension and diabetes on incomes that have shrunk with each lost harvest. “We’re struggling to make ends meet because of the uncompensated crop and livestock losses,” he said.
The consequences extend beyond the fields and livestock.
Simile Langwenya, also of Somntongo, says wild animals have established a presence in the thick bush near the homesteads. Women and children now move in groups; walking alone is not safe. Parents who can afford it hire kombis to ferry their children to school. Those who cannot walk them halfway and turn back. “If a child comes back late from school, you feel anxious,” Langwenya said. “Life is now more expensive — we pay school fees and transport, and buy food, and wild animals eat our crops and livestock and pose a safety risk. We always pray that nothing bad happens because we won’t have money to pay hospital bills for wildlife-caused attacks.”
Mphiwa Zwane, a Mgampondo resident, says the communities have sought help from the police, government offices, and their traditional authority at the Vikizibuko Royal Kraal. None produced a remedy. He says some residents have since begun killing wildlife that raids their crops and herds. He recounts one case in which a young man was detained by South African game rangers after being found, with his dogs, chasing a bush pig back onto the reserve’s land. According to Zwane, the rangers shot three of the man’s dogs and held him in a reserve detention cell before releasing him. This account could not be independently verified.
“We tried to engage our traditional authority on this livelihood problem, but all in vain,” Zwane said. “Their failure to address this conflict has pushed us to protect our livelihoods by breaking the law,” as residents have resorted to retaliatory killings and illegal hunting of wild animals
Mzingeli Phakathi, Indvuma of Vikizibuko Royal Kraal, confirmed that affected residents formally asked the traditional authority to issue a letter authorising them to kill wildlife responsible for their losses. The authority refused. Under the Eswatini Game Act of 1991, anyone found guilty of killing game without authorisation must replace the animal or compensate its owner for its full replacement value; courts may impose a prison term of not less than two years and not more than six. The Act contains no provision for compensation to communities whose crops or livestock are destroyed by game.
The Eswatini government’s own wildlife authority does not dispute the gap.
“There is currently no compensation mechanism in place for such damage,” said Xolile Shongwe, conservation secretary at the Big Game Parks Wildlife Authority. “Just as there is not a compensation mechanism in place from the police when criminals steal from people.”
Shongwe’s authority, delegated by the King’s Office, is responsible for enforcing the Game Act and managing wildlife conservation in Eswatini.
Sibusiso Nhlabatsi, principal legal clinic officer at University of Eswatini (UNESWA)’s Legal Aid clinic, says the absence of a statutory framework renders the affected communities legally defenceless — particularly where residents say the wildlife comes from a privately operated reserve rather than a national conservation area. He argues the cross-border dimension does not dissolve the legal responsibility. Because Harloo operates on the South African side of the border, its operator is subject to South African civil law — including liability for damage caused by animals under its control that escape onto neighbouring land.
“The doctrine of sic utere tuo — use your property so as not to harm another’s — has direct application here,” Nhlabatsi said. He argues Eswatini’s government cannot deflect responsibility by pointing to the private character of the reserve or to the international boundary. “The state bears responsibility for ensuring that communities are not left without legal recourse when their productive assets are destroyed by forces connected to commercial wildlife operations.”
Neither the Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife communications manager nor the national coordinator for the Lubombo Transfrontier Conservation Area at the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment — the formal regional conservation framework that includes parts of the Eswatini-South Africa-Mozambique landscape — responded to requests for comment. MP Dr Bonginkosi Dlamini, chairman of the Ministry of Agriculture’s Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, and MP Welcome Dlamini, chairman of the Ministry of Tourism and Environmental Affairs’ Parliamentary Portfolio Committee, did not respond to questions about the gap in the Game Act.
“The wildlife tourism operators make enormous benefits from both live and dead wildlife,” Langwenya said. “When a person kills it, he compensates the owner. The owner also generates income from tourists. But we get nothing for our crop and livestock losses.”
Khumalo’s field along Mgampodo stream will not produce anything this season. In the law, the animal has a value. His lost crop does not.