Elephant victim’s family demands meat

“My sister did not deserve to die like that.”

These are the words of Muhanga Nando’s sister, Chisekwa Mishinga, after an elephant killed Nando (37) in the Kavango East region last month.

The elephant’s carcass is suspected to have rotted after it was shot by a team from the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and was discovered too late, meaning Nando’s family could not get access to its meat any longer.

The family now wants the ministry to give them another elephant’s meat.

The elephant killed Nando near farm Kameya on 28 March.

Environment officials allegedly traced the animal in the hope of putting it down, but only managed to wound it.

A few days later, an elephant carcass was found rotten, suspected to be that of the one that killed Nando.

Nando was walking home from work with Mishinga and their dog to Mazana village, about 7km away, when they came across the elephant.

Speaking to The Namibian yesterday, Mishinga recalled that they noticed elephant footprints on the ground in the direction of their village.

They then decided to change direction.

“However, the dog went in the same direction as the elephants’ tracks. We saw the dog running back and trees moving behind him. My sister and the dog ran to hide behind a nearby tree, while I, with my baby on my back, ran in the direction of our village. The elephant saw my sister and ran towards her.

“I turned back when I heard my sister scream, ‘meme!’, and saw the elephant picking her up . . ,” Mishinga said.

She said she ran to the village in fear that the elephant might follow her.

“I still have nightmares every night about how my sister was killed. It’s by God’s grace that my baby and I survived. My sister did not deserve to die like that,” she said.

Nando’s brother, Herbert Dias, on Monday told The Namibian that when Mishinga came home, there was no one at their homestead, and there was no network for her to call for help.

He said Nando’s boyfriend eventually returned to the village and asked for her.

“He went walking about 6km and found her body. He picked her up, carried her home, and slept with her dead body that night,” Dias said.

He said Nando’s boyfriend went to where there is a network early the following morning and informed the police, family members, and the authorities.

Environment officials then started looking for the elephant and shot it.

“However, the elephant ran off, and they did not go after it. After three days they found the elephant dead at another village, and by then the meat was rotten. They informed us that they could not give us the meat for the funeral,” he said.

Dias said killing another elephant is the least the ministry can do. Nando had twin boys and was a breadwinner, he said.

“Our sister’s death is in vain, because wildlife is more protected than human life. We did not get any support from the environment ministry during the funeral, nor did they offer us any official apology for our loss. We are in debt because we took cash loans to bury our sister,” he said.

Environment ministry spokesperson Vilho Hangula yesterday told The Namibian they are aware of the incident.

He said the elephant ran off and moved among other elephants after it was shot.

“There was an unrelated incident of an elephant found dead away from where this incident took place. The carcass of this particular elephant was found in a decomposition state, and the cause of its death is still under investigation,” he said.

Hangula said Namibia’s human-wildlife conflict scheme does not make provision for affected families to be given meat, but provides N$100 000 for funeral expenses.

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