Conservation Watch
Jumbo blow for Zululand reserve: Bull elephants kill conservationist
The conservationist who was trampled and gored by bull elephants in northern KwaZulu-Natal this week, died trying to save the animals he loved. Matthew Hattingh reports
Trophy hunting: Have your say!
HAVE YOUR SAY: The UK government is looking at restricting, or even banning, the import and export of hunting trophies.
Elephant memories: On art at the intersection
Andries Botha toured the world with his elephant sculptures, capturing the public’s imagination and doing much for conservation. But in his home town, the project trampled on a few toes. A new book tells the story, reports Jared Sumar
Chaos as residents dump outside dump
Rubbish piled up on the roadside outside Pietermaritzburg’s New England Road landfill site after it was closed. Kerushin Pillay of The Witness reports.
Schools threaten legal action over landfill
A civic group has threatened legal action against the authorities if they fail to tackle toxic problems at a Pietermaritzburg landfill site. Fatima Khan and Matthew Hattingh report.
Civil action could address Mdloti river pollution
Sick Durban river spoils popular recreational lagoon
Activists call on SA government to declare climate emergency
About 50 activists, led by Extinction Rebellion, picketed outside the Gauteng Legislature in Central Johannesburg Friday, on Friday afternoon. They called on government to declare a climate emergency, writes Zoë Postman
Harrismith: When the going gets tough, the tough get going
The people of Harrismith have set out to fix what has been broken by years of corruption and theft under Jacob Zuma’s ANC and the premiership of Ace Magashule. Theirs is a story of corruption and collapse being repeated across South Africa where the failure of basic services is causing environmental degradation on a massive scale, writes Tony Weaver. First published in Die Burger. A routine WhatsApp message just before Christmas led to a discussion that more than anything tells
Negotiating a water-scarce world
Can the water-rich mineral Ringwoodite provide humans with water in the future and become the “gold of the 21st century”? asks Fatima Khan
Alarm over mass vulture poisoning in Zululand
Another vulture poisoning incident, discovered two days before Christmas in far northern KwaZulu-Natal, has sparked warnings that the region’s diminishing vulture populations could face extinction if belief-based use is not addressed, writes Fred Kockott Fifteen white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) and a young lappet-faced vulture (Torgos tracheliotos) have died after feeding on a poison-laced impala carcass in northern Zululand last week — the fourth such incident in the region in 2019. The heads and feet had been removed from 13 of
