Meet the Black Mambas: South Africa’s first majority-female anti-poaching unit

Winner: Best International Article at the 2019 ATTA Media Awards

South Africa is in the middle of a poaching crisis. But the Black Mambas, the country’s first majority-female anti-poaching unit, is making inroads at a local level. Georgia Stephens travels to meet them in Balule Nature Reserve.

“Don’t pop in the bush!” I slam the door of the Land Rover and hurry to join the women in front of me. Field Manager Charlie van der Berg, a tall, blonde Afrikaner, is waggling a forefinger at Cute, who grins and crosses her arms over her baggy, camouflage fatigues.

“She was supposed to go on maternity leave,” Charlie explains as Cute disappears into the darkened doorway of her home. “But she’s like: ‘nope – who’s going to take care of my rhinos? I’m going to wait until I pop thank you very much!’”

Inside I can hear a local soap playing on TV. I take a seat at a table outside, plastic legs scraping noisily against concrete, and listen to wafts of overly dramatic music.

A short distance away, the Land Rover is parked in the shade of a marula tree, and beyond that the sunbaked landscape vanishes beneath irregular clumps of thorns and a wave of tall, yellowing grass.

There is nothing separating us from the bush…

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