From just six game farms belonging to captains of international industry in 1960, the South African game ranching industry has grown to be the most vibrant in the world. It is the only country in the world where rhino populations are growing and one of two (Namibia) where black rhino can again be hunted for the first time in decades. It is the most sensible hunting destination for an international trophy hunter who is pressed for time.

South Africa is a world in one country: It sports 22 physiographic regions varying from subtropical jungle to almost true desert, with species to match. Hunting is available on private game ranches, and in controlled hunting areas in some provincial game reserves. The number of game on private land is an estimated two and a half times more than the game on public land.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Country Name: Republic of South Africa (since 1960); formerly the Union of South Africa (1910-1960)

Capital City: Multiple, with Pretoria as main seat of government

Population: 45 million

Major Tribal Groups: Europeans (English, Afrikaner mainly, Portuguese to lesser extent); Blacks: Zulu, Xhosa, Tswana, Shangaan, Venda; Asian (English speaking)

Official Language(s): English, Afrikaans and nine others!!!

Currency: Rand

Exchange Controls: Restricted. Airports, Banks, Bureaux of Exchange, Some Hotels

Payments required in foreign exchange: None

Major Airport(s): International: Johannesburg International Airport (formerly Jan Smuts Airport). Serves Detailed flight information can be viewed at the Airports Company of SA website: www.airports.co.za

Entry and/or exit taxes: None

Visa Requirements: Vary from country to country of origin of hunter. None required for visitors from U.S. Government Health & Inoculation

Requirements: None, except when you have visited other African countries. Then you may be required to prove that you have been inoculated in terms of that country’s requirements. That varies from country to country.

Inoculations Recommended: None, but malaria prevention is strongly recommended for all northern hunting locations on the eastern seaboard and about 200 kilometres inland. Also recommended are yellow fever and tetanus.

Credit cards accepted: Yes. Visa, Mastercard, American Express are widely accepted.

HUNTING INFO

Regulating authority: Provincial game departments hunting on state land, game ranches, tribal reserves, or combination? Mostly on privately owned land.

Hunting licences required: Requirement is that no foreign hunter may hunt in South Africa unless he is guided by an outfitter registered and approved by the provincial game department as an outfitter.

Distinguish between an outfitter (safari operator) and a professional hunter. The fact that a person is a PH does not mean he may solicit or guide foreign hunters. It is the outfitter’s duty to be licensed, hunt on approved land, and ensure that his foreign hunting client’s paperwork is in order. It is the foreign hunter’s duty to ensure that he has seen his outfitter’s registration papers. All hunting-related payments (excepting taxidermy, unless so agreed) are normally made to the outfitter and not to any administrative or legal authority.

For up-to-date information, check the Firearms licences required: No.

However, the visiting hunter must have proof of ownership of the firearm in his country. So far, a valid export permit from his country of origin is accepted, and if licenses are issued in his country of origin it is best to bring those along. Upon arrival he will be issued a temporary import permit at no charge valid for 90 to 180 days by the Customs & Excise officer at port of entry. Firearms must accompany the hunter upon departure.

Prohibited firearms: South Africa is in process of changing from a sensible system under the Arms and Ammunition Act, to acomplicated and user unfriendly gungrabbing system under a partially implemented Firearms Control Act.

HUNTING LOCATIONS
For all its fancy scientific differentiation, however, for hunting purposes the country can be divided into the following basic regions:

Eastern coastal plains • Bushveld • Highveld • Kalahari • Lowveld

The country will be dealt with province by province, with the species that historically occupied the various habitats in the different provinces. However, South Africa has permitted the introduction of species not endemic to specific regions, and one can now hunt almost anything virtually anywhere in South Africa. Whether this is good or bad is debatable. From time to time, evidence is found that certain species previously believed an ‘intruder’ species in a given area in fact occurred there during the time before man. What is even less desirable in some quarters is that you can hunt foreign species in South Africa. Animals like lechwe, fallow deer, tiger, tahr, and a surprising number of others can be shot on enclosed ranches in South Africa.

Eastern Cape Province
The Eastern Cape Province boasts quite a number of different geographical and climatological regions.
The first is the coastal belt, a 100-kilometre wide strip on the east coast that consists of low-lying (mostly below 500 metres) rain forest with grassland adjacent to the warm Agulhas current of the Mozambique Channel. Rainfall generally ranges from 700 to 1000 mm annually with a humid subtropical climate. Summer day temperatures range up to 35°C. Typical winter day-night temperatures average about 18°C, and rain falls throughout the year, peaking in summer. The Eastern Cape coastal belt is malaria free.

Species
Species found in this habitat are bushbuck, Cape grysbok (in the southern, so called temperate coast section of the Eastern Cape Province), and blue and red duikers. These areas also offer excellent bush-pig hunting. Just inland of the coastal belt, and midway between this belt and the escarpment leading up to the interior plateau, one finds the malaria-free plateau slopes.

In the Eastern Cape this is called the Winterberg Uplands, whereas the slightly differing plateau slopes of KwaZulu-Natal are called the Midlands. On average, temperatures on these slopes are about two or three degrees cooler than the coastal belt, and humidity is lower.

The Winterberg Uplands display a fascinating variation from semi-desert to arid Karoo, Cape shrub, and even evergreen mountain forest – all close together southeast of Lesotho. This is why the Eastern Cape has become one of the most sought-after hunting destinations in South Africa: It allows the hunter to pursue a wide range of species without travelling far. The species found in the Winterberg Uplands generally do not have consistent distribution throughout because of the interesting geographic variation. Somewhere in the region, however, you will find bontebok, bushbuck, kudu, grey rhebuck, black wildebeest, common duiker, mountain reedbuck, steenbok, and oribi.Eastern Cape Province has two major cities, Port Elizabeth and East London, each with an airport and direct connections to South Africa’s international ports of entry.

Kwazulu-Natal
The KwaZulu-Natal coastal belt is similar to that of the Eastern Cape, but it does have some important differences. The farther north one travels toward Mozambique, the closer you get to rhino heartland and malaria. Kudu generally do not frequent the coastal belt, but in northern KwaZulu-Natal Province they do. You also find nyala here.

The Natal Midlands is a different kettle of fish from the Winterberg Uplands. Upland-style evergreen mountain shrub dominates the southern part, but gradually turns into a drier mixed savanna and acacia-type bush as one moves north. The climates in the two KwaZulu-Natal Province regions are similar to those of the Eastern Cape, except that KwaZulu-Natal is warmer and more humid. KwaZulu-Natal has been a trend-setter in game ranching and wildlife management in South Africa. Successful re-breeding of South Africa’s black and white rhinos began here. Almost all South African species can be found somewhere in the Midlands of KwaZulu-Natal. The reedbucks and the duikers, nyala, impala, and suni, with grey rhebok in the southern region, complement virtually every other species available in the country. What you do not find naturally in Kwazulu-Natal are the Karoo and arid grasslands, and Karoo shrub-habitat species such as blesbok, bontebok, gemsbok, springbok, hartebeest and the like, but these have been introduced on some ranches.

The Indian Ocean port city of Durban has an airport that handles large-aircraft flights from the international airports; the airport at the Kwazulu-Natal capital, Pietermaritzburg, handles charter flights, as does Richards Bay in the north.

Free State Province
West of KwaZulu-Natal across the Drakensberg escarpment lies Free State Province. For all practical purposes, Free State is a flat plateau with an average elevation of about 1 500 meters above sea level. It is higher in the east near the escarpment and lower in the west near the central continental latitudes. The Free State is Pampas-style ‘flatland’. It is a moderatetemperature long-grass plain with average day/night summer temperatures around 20°C-23°C in the east near the escarpment, and slightly warmer towards the west. Winters are cold with night temperatures below zero; in July, day/night average temperature runs between 7°C and 10°C. Humidity is also much lower than it is near the coast. Rainfall peaks in summer with an annual average of 600-800mm in the east, 400-600mm in the central parts, and less than 400mm in the west.

Toward the escarpment and the foothills of the Drakensberg in the east, the remains of the original plateau manifest themselves in loose, almost mesa-style hills.

There are more trees, and it can best be described as very open savanna. The Free State is the home of the grazer species partially adapted to semi-arid conditions. There are no warthog, bushpig, hippo, bushbuck or nyala. Since there are few trees – no giraffe. Kudu are scarce, and are found only in the very south (Bethulie, Phillipolis) towards the more Karoo-style landscape and Colesberg. Mountain reedbuck are found in the higher eastern part; black wildebeest, blesbok, and springbok are found in the south, and steenbok and duiker all over. There also is some excellent jackal and caracal (lynx) hunting in this region (Bethlehem, Harrismith, Warden) with truly great wingshooting in the northern parts around Kroonstad. Bloemfontein has an airport for internal flights, but most of the Free State is quite accessible by car from Johannesburg International Airport. The Free State is malaria free.

Limpopo Province (formerly Northern Province)
This province has had more name changes than Carlos the Jackal. Since it is the nature of things that maps are invariably outdated, we will do our best to provide information both old and new. Some of the new names (in brackets), with which hunters should acquaint themselves, are:

• Ellisras (Lephalale)
• Louis Trichardt (Makhado)
• Messina (Musina)
• Naboomspruit (Mookgophong)
• Nylstroom (Modimole)
• Potgietersrus (Mokopane)
• Warmbad (Bela-Bela)

This province lies south of the Limpopo river and Zimbabwe, and stretches from Botswana in the west to Mozambique in the east. Average elevation around its international borders is less than 1 000 meters, dropping below 500 along the Mozambique border. It is malaria free in the west (Thabazimbi, Ellisras, Mussina), but the farther east (Punda Maria, Giyani, Phalaborwa) you travel, the higher the
malaria risk becomes. Vegetation in this low part consists of dry woodland and thorn bush. In the west (bushveld) it is somewhat more scrub-like than in the east (lowveld) with an increasing tendency to mopane brush and baobab north of Louis Trichardt/Makhado as one approaches Musina.

Annual day/night temperatures average just under 25°C in summer, but the winters are much cooler. Hunting day temperatures will be cool (light jacket) in the early morning and late afternoon, but hunting is mostly done in shirtsleeves. The nights can be positively cold, albeit mostly above 0°C. Rainfall occurs in the summer and varies from west to east, but 400mm is a reasonable average across the border areas. This part of the country has virtually all the so-called plainsgame species of South Africa. Where the inaccurate term ‘plains game’ originated nobody knows, but for our purposes we will stick to it. The hogs, giraffe, hippo, crocodile, kudu, bushbuck, waterbuck, the various reedbuck, blue wildebeest, impala, tsessebe, klipspringer, steenbok, Sharpe’s grysbok, plains zebra, all the duikers Cape Grysbok (except blue), and much more are found here. In the western (bushveld) parts, gemsbok (oryx), grey rhebuck, and red hartebeest can be found, whereas the Big Five (including black rhino), eland, nyala, roan, sable, Lichtenstein hartebeest, and suni prevail in the east (lowveld) adjacent to Kruger National Park.

Central Limpopo Province is higher, with elevations of 1 000 to 1 500 meters. The variety of trees and bird life in this area is beyond belief. Very few thorn trees are found across most of the higher elevations, while evergreen mountain shrubbery abounds. Limpopo Province is served by the Gauteng airports, with Johannesburg International Airport the largest and busiest in Africa. Construction at the airport has largely been completed, and it no longer looks like a building site with its own runway rather than an international airport. Mpumalanga is not discussed separately, as it is very similar to northern KwaZulu-Natal in the south, Limpopo in the northeast, and Free State Province in the west and south. There is considerable hunting activity in Gauteng as well, but whatever hunting takes place is similar to the surrounding provinces, and there is nothing unique about it.

North West Province
This province is centrally located northwest of Free State Province and southeast of Botswana with its capital, Mmabatho, near the Botswana border. This is arid semi desert over most of its extent. It is covered mostly by southern Kalahari vegetation (shrubbery and camel-thorn trees) with little grass in the south, becoming more bushveld to the north near Limpopo’s Thabazimbi, with some bankeveld (broad plateau with foliage) in between. No evergreen plants are found in this area. Summer temperatures are very similar to those of western Limpopo (about 25°C) with winter averages half that. Whereas Limpopo can still be classified as temperate subtropical, this part of the world is sahelian or semi-desert with 200mm - 400mm rain annually and annual average humidity less than 30 per cent. This malaria-free province is characterized by a general absence of monkeys, giraffe, Cape buffalo and elephant. It is home to the gemsbuck (oryx) and the red hartebeest, with black wildebeest, springbok, and even kudu in places.

This is one of the least-populated areas of South Africa, and is mostly served from Kuruman and Kimberley in the Northern Cape, Potchefstroom centrally, and Rustenburg to the north. The hunting areas of the Northern Cape are very similar to those of North West, but tend to be more popular – especially since it offers even more desert-like hunting around the Kalahari- Gemsbok National Park.

FIREARMS
Firearms that will not be permitted into SA are: Automatic rifles; semiautomatic rifles (unless issued special authorization, and then it is recommended that this not be done at point of entry, but that the SA Police Central Firearms Register be contacted at least 60 days prior to arrival for a decision. Contact them at +27-12- 3536057 and ask for the Import Permit Section. Currently the officer in charge is

Captain R. Kruger; Automatic and semiautomatic shotguns;

Hand carbines

Firearms in caliber.50 Browning MG. Only a “reasonable amount” of ammunition will be permitted into the RSA. That decision is in the hands of the officer in charge at the port of entry. The finish on
the gun is immaterial and can be camo.

Payments for hunting licences: Must be arranged with outfitter as generally the client hunter pays the outfitter, who ensures that all paperwork is in place. Hunter or outfitter can make arrangements
with taxidermists.

GAME LIST

Big Five available: Elephant, Cape buffalo, lion, leopard, white rhino

Major species: Dangerous Game: Elephant, white rhino, Cape buffalo, lion, leopard

Big Game: Hippo, giraffe, eland, Cape mountain zebra, Hartmann’s mountain zebra, Burchell’s zebra

Medium Game: Greater kudu, black and blue wildebeest, Lichtenstein hartebeest, red hartebeest, tsessebe, nyala, waterbuck

Small Game: Bontebok, blesbok, warthog, bushpig, blue duiker, red duiker, common duiker, springbok, klipspringer, oribi, steenbok, Cape grysbok, Sharpe’s grysbok, suni, impala, grey rhebok, roan, sable, oryx, bushbuck, southern reedbuck, mountain reedbuck, ostrich
Varmints: Chacma baboon, vervet monkey, black-backed jackal, African civet, large spotted genet, spotted hyena, caracal, serval, dassie/hyrax

Non huntable: Wild dog, cheetah, black rhino, some hyenas

Unique species: Bontebok, blesbok, black wildebeest, Cape mountain zebra, Cape grysbok, grey rhebok

Game birds available: Varieties of pigeon (including rock pigeons), doves, geese (two species), duck (14 species), francolin (10 species), quail, guinea fowl

HUNTING SEASON

Hunting season: There are two systems.
Hunting seasons and species that may be hunted are regulated by each province. This mostly applies to unfenced farms without specific hunting facilities as required by the provincial authority. Foreign hunters mostly hunt on fenced land approved by the provincial authority and regarding which an exemption permit has been issued

Closed months: September to May on non-exempted land, but varies from province and even if season is open on non-exempted land, certain species may be prohibited.

Best season for hunting: April to October.

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