DAILY DISPATCH (East London, S Africa) 01 November 06 Rock python tries to make a meal of Luvo (Luyanda Makapela)
A nine-year-old boy is lucky to be alive after getting into a tangle with what experts believe could have been a Lesser African rock python.
Luvo Gwedana’s nightmare ordeal came when he and two friends were rounding up cattle at Kubusie village about a kilometre from Stutterheim late in the afternoon.
“Everything just happened quickly,” he said yesterday. “I kicked something in the veld that I thought was cow dung and seconds later felt heat all over my body.
“It was coming from the biggest snake I’ve ever seen in my life.
He described how the snake started coiling around his legs.
“I wanted to cry, but I was afraid that the snake might hurt me so I kept dead still. It seemed like it was wrapping around my body and coming towards my head.
“It was hot and heavy and I was sweating. I was afraid to even look at it, I just heard it breathing. I kept my arms up around my head to protect my face.”
One of his friends began hitting the snake while others ran for help.
Athenkosi Ngalo, 14, who had taken Luvo into the veld without his parents’ permission, said: “I didn’t know what to do but I had to do something to save the little boy.
“I started beating the snake like crazy. I was afraid that Luvo would be killed.”
After what seemed like 30 minutes, the snake suddenly relaxed its grip and dropped to the ground with a loud hiss.
“I was left standing only in my underpants,” said Luvo.
“The snake was still breathing loudly so we started to run to the village. I left my trousers and shoes behind.
“I don’t ever want to see a snake with my eyes again.”
Athenkosi’s mother, Nomalady Ngalo, said Luvo had scratches on his legs and body when he arrived home.
The community felt unsafe because the reptile had still not been found, and neither Luvo nor his father’s father, Fumanekile Gwedana, had slept properly since the incident, she added.
King William’s Town snake collector Morne Venter said he was amazed the boy was still alive and thought it was probably because of the beating the snake received from Athenkosi.
“It’s extremely rare to escape a python as it is so powerful over its prey,” he added.
Venter said the species was last seen in the area about 17-18 years ago.
Johannesburg Zoological Garden herpetologist Ian du Plessis said yesterday the snake was either a Lesser African rock python, which is indigenous to southern Africa or a constrictor from another continent that had possibly escaped from its owner.
Although pythons are not aggressive, it was possible this one had been provoked by Luvo’s kick and was possibly hungry after an inactive winter. “He probably got too close to it and the snake thought he was a small prey,” said Du Plessis, who added that a 10-to-15-year-old python could grow up to five metres long.
Rock python tries to make a meal of Luvo

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