16 Aug 2015

In an unbelievable stroke of luck, a man from Tshwaane in Kweneng gained popularity after daring a leopard and a lion in separate attacks.

When Mr Kwelagobe Sengawane narrates the stories of his double brush with death, he does it with so much zest and humour that everybody who is listening wishes he could do it again and again.

Known locally as ‘DK’ - perhaps after the former Molepolole South legislator, Daniel Kwelagobe - Mr Sengawane says he will never forget the day he rode on his horse to the village’s well to water his cattle oblivious of the danger that lay ahead.

“Suddenly, out of the blue emerged a huge leopard charging at me so menacingly that before I knew it, the big cat had flung me off my horse’s back to the ground where the real battle began,” he says amidst laughter by his listeners.

He says his horse watched helplessly as the fierce fight ensued until the rider unexpectedly managed to overpower the canine, climbed on its back and started to beat it so hard and repeatedly it had no room to react.

Luckily for him, the area had recently been gutted by a veldt fire, as such, tree stumps were scattered all over for him to pick and use on the animal until it fled the scene, but with him on its back,” says Mr Sengawane.

“It must have been quite a sight for story tellers, seeing a person riding a leopard like a stubborn donkey,” he says sarcastically, adding that the animal finally shook him off its back roughly as the walloping got worse.

“I dusted myself and as I looked up I was relieved to see the big cat speeding away obviously in shock; I realised immediately that the fight was over, and that I had decisively won,” he says proudly.

He says he dragged himself back to his horse and rode back into the village to seek medical help only to remain at Molepolole’s Scottish Livingstone Hospital for a week before he was on his feet again.

The attack resulted in injuries to his back and his left shoulder, he says, adding that to this day, the scars that always remind him of the fateful day are still visible.

Mr Sengawane says he later learnt that the leopard had probably been provoked by baboons that had attacked it just before he passed by.

“I was just unfortunate to have been at the wrong place at the wrong time when the canine was still in a foul mood,” he concludes.

That was in 1984; fast forward to 2006. Mr Sengawane cheated death once again, and this time around, the encounter was more lethal that the first because he was faced with a lion, the mighty king of the jungle.

For some time the village had been concerned that lions had been on the loose ravaging their livestock for about a month unobstructed.

Human-wildlife conflict in Tshwaane, a rural community near the famed Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) and Khutse, is rife, and often characterised by face-to-face confrontations between helpless humans and strong and dangerous animals.

And, because in Tshwaane everyone knows everyone, when one farmer’s livestock gets mauled by a lion, it becomes every villager’s business.
It was against this background that one morning acting on reports that lions had killed eight donkeys and a horse, a strong team of 11 men - Mr Sengawane amongst them - set out to hunt the problem animals.

“As we reached Kaeya Pan, we found two fully grown lions and two cubs. One of the team members fired a gunshot, but unfortunately he went on to miss five times, ultimately agitating one of them,” says Mr Sengawane.

He says the agitated lion then charged at one of the team members who froze in fright as the rest of the hunting team beat a haste retreat.

“The natural feeling of fear almost overcame me, but I quickly judged that we could not leave one of us at the mercy of a ferocious lion, so I rushed my horse towards him the aim being to scare the lion away,” says the hunter.

With desperation, Mr Sengawane says he shouted at the lion, “tau tlogela motho, tau tlogela motho,” but as his focus was on helping his mate, he was stunned to realise that the other lion was attacking him from behind.

The large cat had already grabbed the horse by its hind legs peeling off a large portion of the skin, and, in the struggle he fell off the horse.

Fearing for his life, he realised that the lion had got trapped by an acacia tree, which gave him a chance to escape, but at that stage, his mate had managed to escape the first lion, although it still came charging at him.

The mate dashed in between me and the trapped lion, lifting me up onto the back of his horse at the same time, and that was how we managed to escape to safety,” Mr Sengawane reminisces.

The following day, the lions were driven off to their habitat with the help of game wardens. Unfortunately, his horse succumbed to the lion attack a few days later.

Asked whether he never had any nightmares afterwards, Mr Sengawane tries to play it cool, but the effort is thwarted by one colleague who says:“He was fine initially, then a week later, while we were relaxing, he started trembling and sweating profusely; he even asked for a cup of tea, prompting us to take him to the local health post.”

The colleagues later realised that the great animal fighter was suffering from post-trauma shock, which normally occurs sometime after one has had traumatising experiences.

After such a traumatising experience, will Mr Sengawane ever take part in another lion hunt again?

“Never,” he says without hesitation. “That was quiet a scary experience, I cheated death and I don’t see myself going through the same experience again,” he concludes with a sly laughter. ENDS