The Madikwe Game Reserve in North West has become the focal point of an extraordinary wrestling match over how the reserve, and particularly its 1,600 elephants, should be managed.
In recent weeks, provincial authorities defied a parliamentary committee and pre-empted the findings of a task team appointed to investigate the reserve.
How best to manage the elephant population of the 75,000ha provincial reserve, a high-end “big five” tourist destination, has been hotly debated, with some officials arguing that an “overpopulation” of elephants is destroying the biodiversity of the reserve. To date they have provided no scientific evidence to support this, but also say all management actions in the reserve have to consider the economic needs of local communities.
Critics, including animal welfare NGOs, conservationists and some MPs, say the North West Parks & Tourism Board, which runs the reserve and reports to the provincial department of economic development, environment, conservation & tourism, has been negligent in not exploring nonlethal methods, including contraception, to slow elephant population growth.
They fear authorities want to cull because the board regards elephants and other wildlife as a means of raising revenue through the sale of meat and trophy hunting, but also to win support from local communities.
The reserve hosts 34 private lodges, of which two are owned by local communities. Two land claims have restored 33,530ha to community ownership.
The debate in recent months has been clouded by political considerations and governance inefficiencies in the province. Many municipalities are dysfunctional and the parks board has had six CEOs in the past year. Board staff went on strike several times this year because salaries had not been paid. Managers at other reserves in the province report a shortage of money for essential equipment and maintenance.
The province permits hunting in many of its reserves and culls large numbers of animals. Both activities raise much-needed revenue.
Earlier this month the Public Servants Association, a union representing state employees, pointed out that the parks board had “six acting CEOs in just six months, highlighting a leadership crisis that threatens service delivery and public trust”.
The debate over the elephant population in Madikwe came to a head in November last year after the deaths of about 75 of the animals during a drought, prompting claims of an “overpopulation of elephants” leading to a shortage of food.
Subsequently the board appointed a provincial elephant task team to consider scientific evidence, as well as stakeholder opinions and to make recommendations by the end of September.
Despite the team still considering the issue, the board has repeatedly publicly confirmed its intention to cull elephants.
“Culling must be done. It will be surprising if that report does not suggest we have to cull,” the board’s acting CEO, Jonathan Denga, told the parliamentary portfolio committee for forestry, fisheries & environment on September 18. “It has to happen.”
Culling is the reduction of the population of a particular species of animals based on scientific research. The National Elephant Norms & Standards states that culling should take place only as a last resort after all nonlethal options have been considered. These include contraception, relocation, water resource manipulation and range expansion.
The task team does not include representatives from animal welfare organisations, despite chair of the parliamentary committee Nqabisa Gantsho having ordered in a previous meeting that the National Council of SPCAs (NSPCA) be included. Parliamentary committees conduct oversight and scrutiny of government departments to ensure they fulfil their constitutional duties.
Gantsho had also ordered that the NSPCA be provided with the minutes of previous task team meetings, written responses to a submission presented by the NSPCA in June, the submission of a report on the task team’s oversight visit to Madikwe, as well as written responses to the committee’s questions during earlier meetings.
Provincial officials continue to promote culling and trophy hunting despite the elephant norms and standards requiring nonlethal options to be exhausted first
— Andrew de Blocq, parliamentary committee member
“We have written a letter to North West as a committee, but there is no response to the outstanding reports we have requested. There is not even a letter to explain their reasons for not submitting these reports, which included the [task team] site visit report, which should take less than a week to write up,” Gantsho told the parliamentary committee. “We need clarity.”
Many lodge owners have complained they have not been sufficiently consulted on management plans and fear that large-scale culling will deter tourists.
The repeated lack of co-operation by the parks board prompted committee member Andrew de Blocq to call on the speaker of the National Assembly to enforce compliance.
He asked the speaker “to intervene as directives regarding elephant management at Madikwe have been blatantly defied by North West provincial authorities. Provincial officials continue to promote culling and trophy hunting despite the elephant norms and standards requiring nonlethal options to be exhausted first.”
The NGO Humane World for Animals (formerly Humane Society International) has offered to run free elephant contraception programmes in Madikwe, an option first discussed two decades ago. The offers were ignored by the parks board. Immuno-contraception of elephants is a scientifically proven process that helps slow the growth of elephant populations, particularly in fenced reserves.
The parks board’s management plan for elephants, approved in March 2023, acknowledges contraception is a successful process and states that culling should be used as a last resort after all nonlethal options have been considered.
“Culling must never be used to generate income,” the NSPCA’s Douglas Wolhuter told the parliamentary committee. “If culling were to occur — as a last resort only — it must be conducted by professional, independent wildlife veterinarians and specialist teams trained to minimise suffering.”
Culling is based on scientific research and differs from trophy hunting, which targets individual animals of high value to hunters and is undertaken for personal pleasure.
In May 2025 a tender for the trophy hunting of 25 elephants, two black rhinos and 10 buffalos was published by the board. After objections it was withdrawn. An elephant hunt, depending on the size of the animal, costs between $30,000 and $70,000 (R600,000-R1.2m). A buffalo would fetch between $10,000 and $18,000, while black rhino are considerably more expensive.
Madikwe was created in the early 1990s with the purchase of cattle farms in an area north of Zeerust bordering on Botswana. It was envisioned as an economic entity to attract tourists and create jobs in the region. The reserve was stocked with large numbers of wildlife relocated as part of an exercise known as Operation Phoenix. About 220 elephants were brought from Zimbabwe, at the time the biggest elephant relocation undertaken.
Though the provincial board avoided answering many of the questions put to it in the meeting, it was firm that the management of wildlife in Madikwe had to contribute to the economic benefit of all.
The board has recently advised private concessionaires in Madikwe that they have a duty to contribute to local economies and have started re-examining lodge leases, some of which were negotiated on a 99-year basis, to reflect the new reality of community land ownership.
MEC for economic development, environment, conservation & tourism Bitsa Lenkopane told the parliamentary committee that communities had successfully reclaimed the land, which now belonged to them, and this had “created an expectation of financial benefit”.
She said it should not be forgotten that Madikwe was part of broader society and “we are pursuing a transformation agenda, and we do it because we are biased to our people who have previously not benefited”.
The task team was due to finalise its report at the end of September for ministerial consideration. The national and provincial departments of environment, SANParks, the South African National Biodiversity Institute, Northwest University and Stellenbosch University’s Africa Wildlife Economy Institute make up the team.
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