102 vultures killed in Mpumalanga, third mass poisoning this month
Conservationists say 102 critically endangered vultures have been found fatally poisoned in Mpumalanga.
Vulpro and the Wild and Free Rehabilitation Centre in Mpumalanga said 92 white-backed vultures, of which 90% were breeding adults, nine hooded vultures and one male adult white-headed vulture were found dead in a game reserve near Marloth Park, Mpumalanga.
The scene was located through real-time GPS tracking of several vultures previously rehabilitated and released by Vulpro and Wild and Free.
Many carcasses were found lying around a warthog carcass. Two more carcasses were discovered by air. No body parts were taken.
"Samples have been collected and will be submitted for toxicological testing to identify the poison used and supporting possible legal action," the organisations said.
This is the third mass poisoning this month, with more than 120 killed after eating off an elephant carcass and 49 from a giraffe carcass in the Kruger National Park.
"The scale of the poisoning is devastating," said Kerri Wolter, CEO of Vulpro.
"To lose this number of vultures, let alone adult breeding birds, during breeding season is an ecological crisis."
Vulpro appealed to rehabilitation centres to stop releasing vultures in the area until the threat is investigated and mitigated.
TimesLIVE
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Herald
23 minutes ago
- The Herald
Mthatha athlete part of Comrades elite field
When thousands of runners line up for the Comrades Marathon in front of the Pietermaritzburg City Hall on Sunday morning, one of the elite runners at the front of the queue will be Eastern Cape-born athlete Musa Zweni. Zweni, 34, runs for Pan African Resources Club and is coached by John Hamlet, who has coached several of the illustrious championship-winning ultra marathon runners. He has been in the Comrades Marathon training camp in Dullstroom, Mpumalanga, preparing for 2025's race. Zweni said he joined the camp in 2025, and the plan for the upcoming race was about adjusting to the training approach of his new club. 'We have got a three-year plan that we are working on with my coach,' Zweni said. 'We will just tick off this year and see other years. 'But in my head, there is something else. But the coach said before I could get there, we need to get some things right,' Zweni said, adding he did not run the Two Oceans Marathon to prepare for the Comrades. Born in Tabase, Mthatha, Zweni's best Comrades time, which he ran in 2023 in the colours of Boxer Superstores Athletic Club, was 5 hrs 58 min 47 sec, which earned him the Wally Hayward medal. An injury cost him running his first comrades in 2018, but his time in the race has improved tremendously from his 2019 debut where he finished in position 2,831 in 08:56:57, earning himself a Bill Rowan medal, followed by a much-improved performance finishing in 73rd spot, earning his first silver medal in 2022 after running his race in 06:30:58. Zweni's first dream was to play professional football, but that was ended after he tore his anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) at a tournament in 2012 in Soweto, where he was preparing for trials with a PSL club. That forced surgery, with doctors saying he would never be able to run again. His running career started in 2017 in Cape Town and he has since attracted sponsorships from top global sport brands such as Puma, Maurten Gel and Future Life. 'After that injury, I started experiencing life in the sense that I started drinking, at that time I did not even have a girlfriend because my life was about football and nothing else. 'I started experimenting with a lot of things because I felt like I had given up so much for that moment. Everything happened so fast,' he said. Several injuries linked to his ACL injury forced Zweni to hang up his football boots at the age of 26. While the transition to elite running was not smooth sailing, Zweni's competitive streak kicked in when his friend, Siyabonga Madala, introduced him to running. He finished his first 10km run in 47 minutes, ran his first half marathon in 1:36:00, and his first Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in 4:00:00 from the F seeding. — WATCH: We are the Champions
Mail & Guardian
an hour ago
- Mail & Guardian
Health association takes legal action against NHI Act
File photo by James Oatway The Health Funders Association this week launched a legal challenge against the President Cyril Ramaphosa The ANC, which governed the country solely until being forced into a national coalition after the polls, says the NHI is intended to provide universal and comprehensive health coverage to all South Africans. But it has faced fierce criticism from the private healthcare sector and parties such as the Health Funders Association chief executive Thoneshan Naidoo acknowledged this week that 'South Africa needs a healthcare system that delivers equitable, quality care to all [and] we fully support that vision.' But he added: 'In its current form, and without private sector collaboration, the NHI Act is fiscally impossible and operationally unworkable, and threatens the stability of the economy and health system, impacting everyone in South Africa.' The association filed its application at the Pretoria high court, joining five other medical entities that are fighting the law. The It argued that the framework in its current form was not fiscally feasible and would also have adverse effects on South Africa's healthcare and economic outcomes. 'The steep tax increases required to fund the NHI will reduce disposable income, curb consumer spending across all sectors of the economy and may well trigger an exodus of high-income taxpayers,' it said. 'At the same time, destabilising the private healthcare sector will deter investment, put jobs at risk, and slow The association's position is premised on a report by Genesis Analytics, published this week, which showed that the 'NHI Act requires unsustainable tax increases while reducing healthcare access for medical scheme members'. It said the analysis also revealed South Africa's racially diverse medical scheme membership, in which more than 68% of members are black, Indian or coloured, and up to 83% earn less than R37 500 a month. 'The proposed NHI would, therefore, disproportionately impact working-class households who currently rely on medical schemes for quality care.' Modelling by Genesis Analysis showed that it would be impossible to raise the funds required for NHI, 'even under the most optimistic assumptions'. 'For NHI to fund a level of care equivalent to what medical scheme members currently receive, as government has indicated is the intention, the Genesis model shows that personal income tax would need to increase by 2.2 times (a 115% increase in tax) from the current average rate of 21% to an average of 46% of income.' This, it said, would push marginal tax rates in the lowest income bracket from 18% to 41%, and in the highest bracket from 45% to 68%. Building its case, the association said the Genesis model projected that more than 286 000 additional healthcare professionals would be required to fulfil the NHI vision. This is more than twice the number of general practitioners, nurses and pharmacists and three times the number of specialists. 'NHI will therefore place significant pressure on healthcare workers and addressing these capacity gaps will require significant time and investment,' the association said. Naidoo added that South Africa does not have enough skilled workers to deliver the NHI's mandate. 'By driving down service tariffs, the NHI risks accelerating the emigration or exit of healthcare professionals from the sector altogether.' The country is already facing a medical professional 'brain drain'. A survey conducted last year by the South Africa Medical Association, which represents approximately 17 000 doctors across South Africa, showed that as many as 38% of its members intended to leave the country in response to the implementation of the NHI scheme. Last month, Ramaphosa defended the Act after the Board of Healthcare Funders, which represents most private medical schemes, said he flouted his constitutional duty by failing to scrutinise its constitutionality when he signed the NHI into law. It added that the president ignored submissions that pointed to the patent constitutional defects in the legislation. The Pretoria High Court ruled in favour of the board. Ramaphosa launched an appeal, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction in the matter and erred in finding that his decision to sign the new law was reviewable. The court found no merit in his argument on the separation of powers and said the step of assenting to a Bill was but part of a lawmaking process that was a reviewable exercise in public power.
Mail & Guardian
an hour ago
- Mail & Guardian
Government's gender-based violence plan lacks funds
File photo Inadequate government funding for the The '[The plan] is a comprehensive strategy to deal with gender-based violence and my feeling is we should be putting our energy, our advocacy, our legal work and our responses into getting it to work,' said Bronwyn Pithy, an advocate at the Women's Centre for Legal Studies. 'We should be pressurising governments to get the NSP [national strategic plan] to work and be funded and properly done.' In his But Pithy said the government's response to the scourge of gender-based violence and femicide was not enough. Rights group Women for Change has put forward a number of demands to the department of women, youth and persons with disabilities to address gender-based violence, including that it be declared a national disaster, funding the national strategic plan and urgently implementing the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide Bill, which was signed into law in May last year. In a written response to the organisation, the department said it had submitted funding proposals to the treasury for the implementation of the national strategic plan and had also put in funding proposals for the establishment of the National Council on Gender-Based Violence and Femicide. 'The [department] is engaged in all these matters. The department of social development has highlighted the need for immediate allocation of funding and resources for GBVF-prevention initiatives. This action is pending,' it said. 'Additional funding is required The department of women, youth and persons with disabilities did not respond to questions from the Mail & Guardian. In a statement, Women for Change said while the department acknowledged the funding crisis, it offered no solution beyond stating that it is 'subject to the availability of funds'. 'This is not good enough! Survivors cannot wait for the next budget cycle. Shelters are closing. Victims are being turned away. Legal and psychological services are under-resourced, like many other organisations at the forefront,' it said. 'This is not a planning issue. This is a moral emergency, where you ignore the 15 murdered women every day.' The organisation also called for judicial and legislative reform, which includes opposing bail in cases of child sexual abuse, rape, domestic violence, attempted murder and murder, where sufficient evidence exists and if they are a danger to survivors and the community. While the Criminal and Related Matters Amendment Act makes provision for opposing bail, Women for Change said its application is 'inconsistent and dangerously flawed'. It added that the criminal justice system does not adequately address survivors' lived experience and they are often 're-traumatised by the justice system, with rapists, abusers and murderers walking free on bail or reoffending while out on parole'. Pithy conceded that the sexual offences legislation is not being implemented consistently, adding that the government needed to pay attention to detecting and prosecuting cases. 'Our biggest problem in this country is, apart from the fact that we have a very low reporting rate … is the attrition rates and that the number of cases that are reported in comparison to those that eventually land up in conviction is so minuscule,' she said. 'The conviction rate in sexual offences at the moment, realistically, is between 5% and 7% of the cases that actually get reported.' She added that the system needed to show perpetrators that they will be caught, they will be prosecuted and be found guilty — and there will be consequences. 'It is probably one of the most effective ways of addressing GBVF.' 'Facing these levels of violence, at the moment, people operate with impunity. They know they won't get caught and they know they won't proceed to prosecution.'
