Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife denies illegal elephant culling in Vryheid
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has refuted claims it did not have legal permission to kill nine elephants on a farm near Vryheid, northern KZN.
It's understood the elephants escaped from the Mawana Game Reserve.
Ezemvelo says the community felt terrorized by the animals.
Spokesperson Musa Mntambo says Ezemvelo has a permit to get rid of damage causing animals.
He says they were called by the owner of the property to destroy the animals.
"We've been destroying damage-causing animals throughout the province, whenever we seeing them going to the communities and they cause damage or put the lives of humans at risk we then destroy them."
READ: Ezemvelo places CFO on suspension
Mntambo says what they have not received yet is the permit to destroy the roaming elephants.
"We've applied for that, but the elephants in question were destroyed inside the property of Mr Sithole. They were causing damage to his property hence we destroyed them using the permission we had already."
