A 17-year-old Mozambican border jumper escaped death by a whisker after fighting off a crocodile, which had grabbed his left leg while he was trying to cross the Limpopo River into South Africa illegally.
The victim, who is now nursing injuries in the Beit Bridge District Hospital, told Mirror that the incident occurred on Friday at around 16:00.
It grabbed my left leg and started pulling me towards the deeper end of the river. I wrestled with it and when I realised that it was overpowering me, I pulled out my knife and stabbed it in the nose. It then released me,” he said.
The other border jumpers who had accompanied him did not make efforts to rescue him and instead swam back and left the scene. They later came back in the company of officials from the local parks and wildlife department.
The youth sustained a fractured leg in the attack. He had fresh wounds on his leg and part of his left thigh was gone.
When Mirror visited the victim in hospital, he was groaning with pain in his hospital bed.
This is not the first time such an incident has occurred in the Limpopo River. Many border jumpers continue to risk their lives by crossing the river and several of them have either been killed or left with scars by the deadly reptiles in the past.
Recently, an 11-year-old Beit Bridge boy was killed by a crocodile while he was swimming in Limpopo River as his friends watched helplessly.
The local police spokesperson, Insp Tafanana Dzirutwe, warned border jumpers against this practice.
“We continue to handle several cases of people, mostly border jumpers, being attacked by crocodiles while trying to cross into South Africa. Therefore, we would like to urge people to desist from doing so as they put their lives at risk.
Border jumping is an offence and we warn those involved in this practice that they also risk being prosecuted,” said Dzirutwe.
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