BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

Loveness Ncube, the 42-year-old woman from Hwange who was brutally attacked by an elephant while fetching firewood, is still fighting for her life at Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo.

Despite her critical condition, she has received no government support or intervention, leaving her family and community to bear the burden of her medical expenses.

“She complains of body pains all over her body, struggles to speak, and has a severely injured leg, which the doctors will operate on today,” said her husband, Philmon Munsaka, his voice filled with worry and concern.

Munsaka expressed frustration at the lack of government assistance, saying, “We have not heard any word from the government. No one has come to visit us or offer any support and for the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, they only helped by arranging for her ambulance working in collaboration with council, and they dispatched an ambulance from Dinde Clinic.”

Munsaka, recounts the harrowing incident, which occurred on Monday.

“It is not true that she was stealing coal, in fact, she had gone to fetch firewood with her neighbor in the nearby bush because we have a huge crisis of electricity shortages,” Munsaka explained.

He continued, “As they were still picking, they encountered two elephants, and as they reacted, one of them immediately charged at them. The other woman ran faster, and unfortunately, it caught my wife and tossed her hard to the side.”

Munsaka credited a wrapper his wife wore with saving her life. “How she miraculously survived was her wrapping rag or instraro that she had on her waist, so as it gored her with its tusk, the wrapped flung towards its eyes and trunk, so it became more agitated as it tried to get it off its face, and that’s how she was saved.”

Ncube’s neighbor helped her walk despite severe bleeding and eventually left her to seek help as she lost consciousness. The neighbor then used two Honda Fit cars to rescue Ncube from the bush and took her to St Patrick’s Hospital.

Green Shango, a local activist organization , emphasized the need to amend the wildlife bill to assist victims of human-wildlife conflicts. “For her transfer to Bulawayo, she is having difficulty raising the ambulance fees. The fact that wild animals have an ambulance but human victims do not have one is shocking. These conflicts will only grow more frequent as climate change becomes more severe.”