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INLSA<\/p>\n
Lucky Madela sits in the middle of his two children who’s mother was killed in a crocodile attack.<\/p>\n
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Authorities at the Isimangaliso Wetland Park say they are monitoring their population of the reptiles after a woman was killed by a crocodile there on Tuesday.<\/strong> <\/p>\n CEO Andrew Zaloumis said yesterday the incident at St Lucia Estuary which claimed the life of Thandazile Madela, 48, was an opportunistic and isolated attack. <\/p>\n Madela had been trying to retrieve her fish when a crocodile grabbed her arm and dragged her into the water in full view of her son Sphelele, 12, and grandson Ayanda, 11. <\/p>\n The children used a fishing rod to try and fend off the crocodile, but it vanished under the water with Madela. <\/p>\n Thembinkosi Mdladla, 28, who had been nearby, held children back as they tried to jump in the water when the crocodile emerged with Madela\u2019s body in its jaws. <\/p>\n \u201cIn this instance, Madela unfortunately placed herself in a dangerous position at the water\u2019s edge between reeds while untangling her fish,\u201d said Zaloumis. <\/p>\n \u201cThere are around 2 000 crocodiles in Lake St Lucia and this particular animal is not identifiable. The behaviour of crocodiles in the estuary will be monitored.\u201d <\/p>\n He said Isimangaliso\u2019s approach was to capture and relocate problem animals when an unprovoked attack occurred. Killing the animal was a last resort. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is a myth that once a crocodile has tasted human flesh it will specially target humans.\u201d <\/p>\n He warned that people should not feed or approach the reptiles. <\/p>\n Madela\u2019s widower, Lucky, 58, said yesterday that the two children had been taken for counselling and would be monitored carefully over the next few weeks. <\/p>\n \u201cIt was an accident. I will allow the children to go fishing at a later stage, provided there is adult supervision,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n Mdladla said people yesterday fished at the beach where Madela was killed, but the mood had been sombre: \u201cPeople are afraid of fishing at the spot where the incident occurred.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INLSA Lucky Madela sits in the middle of his two children who’s mother was killed in a crocodile attack. Authorities at the Isimangaliso Wetland Park say they are monitoring their population of the reptiles after a woman was killed by a crocodile there on Tuesday. CEO Andrew Zaloumis said yesterday the incident at St Lucia […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-9665","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}