Amos Mzimba, Humble Hero of Kruger

When I was looking for someone to write a foreword to Spirit of Africa, I was encouraged to find a “famous” person to write some words of endorsement. Yet there are also many unknown people doing remarkable work. Amos Mzimba is one of these humble heroes.

Born in 1960, Amos grew up in a Mozambican village on the eastern edge of Kruger National Park. He finished school at 14 because there was no high school. There were no jobs, so when he was 25 he left home, and walked for two days and nights through Kruger, into South Africa.

“I had to be careful, because there were lots of elephants and lions.”

He got a job as an anti-poaching ranger in Kruger, on a monthly salary of R300. He worked 28 days every month, and was often on remote patrol, sleeping out in the bush every night.

“One day we walked for seventy kilometres, tracking poachers. We found them and arrested them.”

When the rhino poaching in South Africa intensified in 2010, he was transferred to the south of Kruger to head up the anti-poaching teams.

“Some days we found a rhino that wasn’t dead, but was suffering greatly. The poachers had cut the horn off its face. That was very difficult for me to see. I had to put the rhino out of its suffering.”

“Sometimes we found baby rhinos alive near their dead mothers. We took the babies to a safe place where we looked after them until they were old enough to survive on their own. I get tears in my eyes when I talk about this.”

Amos made over 300 arrests of poachers.

“My younger brother Anton was also a ranger. He was killed by poachers in 2022. I don’t wish to talk about that.”

Amos almost lost his life, first to a poacher’s bullet, then to a black rhino that gored him. Now retired, he currently trains young rangers at Tracker Academy.

“I am happy teaching young rangers to learn how to track, so that they can continue the good work. Young men need to understand that wild animals are like our children. They rely on us for protection. We have to protect them with our hearts.”

I have a lot of respect for the so-called “famous” conservationists and naturalists, yet if I was to choose someone to spend a day with, I’d choose Amos Mzimba before anyone.

And so I am honoured that Mr Mzimba agreed to write the foreword to my new book, translated from Shangaan by fellow tracker Innocent Ngwenya.

Nkomu swinene Amos and Inno.