Tell me about your relationship with the Zulu game guard, Magqubu Ntombela?
He came into my life at a critical time, because like most whites I had a prejudice against some black people. What Magqubu did was to really get me out of that. In the end he was like Kipling’s Gungadin – he was a better man than I was and I knew it, and was happy to acknowledge it. What do you consider your greatest services to Africa have been? The greatest I would say has been the proselytising of the value of wilderness, and seeing it as an opportunity for religious renewal. Here in KwaZulu-Natal the very first wilderness areas in Africa were set aside in 1958 (as opposed to the parks) in Umfolosi, Hluhluwe and Lake St Lucia (right). I would say it is having worked for that which is my greatest contribution. And making people aware of it, including taking many thousands myself out on foot with Magqubu. Operation Rhino was a dangerous undertaking by all accounts… Yes, particularly trying to administer the antidote for the narcotic which had been injected into the rhino by a dart.
