They say the elusive giant reptile has killed more than 21
people, mainly fishermen, and all of them lost their private parts while the
other parts of their bodies were left intact.
The crocodile has been nicknamed “Macheni,” because of its
weird taste for the private parts of human beings and this has fed suspicion,
within the community, that this is not an ordinary crocodile.
Some claim it is a weapon, controlled by someone with some
powerful “magical powers, who is using the human private parts for his dark
arts, whatever it is.”
Kariba residents, who spoke to H-Metro at the weekend,
insist that this is a “phantom crocodile.”
They also claim that is why it is too elusive for officials
from the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to track it down and
kill it.
Most, if not all of the attacks, the sources said, have
happened around the same area.
Zimparks spokesperson, Tinashe Farawo, responded to H-Metro
enquiries by telling this newspaper that residents of the affected area believe
this is a “spiritual crocodile.”
He revealed that:
A total of 32 lives were lost from crocodile attacks in
Lake Kariba, between Sanyati River and the Lake Kariba Dam Wall, between 2016
and 2023.
Between 2016 and 2023, 38 crocodiles were eliminated during
the same period. Over 40 crocodiles were also captured and translocated.
“As from 2019, legal and illegal gill netting fishers in
Gatche Gatche area assumed that crocodile attacks taking place in the Tsetse
Island general area were caused by one crocodile,” said Farawo.
“While the fact that the attacks are caused by only one
crocodile remains an assumption, efforts have been made by Zimparks to assess
the area and to eliminate suspect crocodiles in the general area.
“The community has named the alleged crocodile ‘Macheni.’
Reasons for the assumption that the crocodile attacks were caused by one
crocodile emanated from the fact that most of the attacks were taking place in
one general area.
“The fishers have a belief that the crocodile is a
spiritual crocodile and this is the reason they named it ‘Macheni,’ since they
claim that the crocodile used to only remove testicles from men after the
attack.”
He said their observations have revealed that:
The crocodile attacks in this area were generally taking
place at night. Gill netting at night is not allowed, it is actually conducted
by poachers. The area of concern is not a legal fishing ground, which they also
called “Macheni Bay”. Illegal fishers usually delay giving reports of attacks
and this makes follow up difficult.
The reasons why most of the attacks were taking place in
this general area were that many people were flocking to this area to do
illegal fishing, this is probably because they were enjoying good fish catches
in this area. It is also a fact that crocodiles also feed on fish and they also
tend to flock areas with more fish and this has caused this conflict.
More than 7
crocodiles have been eliminated in the general area between 2020 and 2023,
however, the Gatche Gatche community has maintained that the alleged ‘Macheni’
is still alive.
Several attempts to eliminate the alleged crocodile were
done way after the crocodile attacks, since all reports are received days after
the attacks, making the searches difficult.
We have also called upon the Gatche Gatche community to
help to identify the alleged crocodile so that we eliminate it once it has been
spotted. We are continuing working with the fishers association to
identification of the alleged crocodile.
He said between December and January this year, Zimparks
intensified anti-poaching patrols at Tsetse Island and removed all poachers,
who periodically put illegal shelters.
“Since then, no
person has been attacked by crocodiles at the alleged ‘Macheni Bay.’
“We are still working with the community to identify the
alleged crocodile, once the crocodile is identified, we will eliminate it.” H
Metro
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