KwaCheetah, a cheetah breeding project that offers interaction experiences with the animals for tourists in KwaZulu Natal, will remain closed pending investigations into recent attacks. Three visitors to the park were mauled in the past three months.

In June, a visitor to the park was injured on the arm and required stitches. Just a month later, an elderly KZN woman was thrown to the ground by a cheetah and bitten on the skull and arm while inside the KwaCheetah fence enclosure. She broke her hip and required reconstructive surgery to her ear. The next day, a 10-year-old schoolboy was injured on the shoulder after a male cheetah forced its head and front leg through the wire enclosure grabbing at the boy’s backpack and scratching and biting the boy in the process. These last two incidents involved the same cheetah.

In a press release, spokesperson for KwaCheetah, Clarke Smith, said this behaviour was totally out of character for the individual cheetah and might in fact have been ‘play’ behaviour. “Safety precautions at Kwa Cheetah are rigorous. None of the cheetah at the project has displayed behaviour of this nature before and it is contrary to their usual demeanour.”

However, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife has ordered the suspension of all commercial operations at the facility and ordered an investigation in August this year.

According to acting Ezemvelo CEO, Dr David Mabunda, Ezemvelo will continue to provide advice to KwaCheetah until all concerns have been addressed. “The facility will remain closed until all shortfalls identified have been addressed,” he said, adding that he could not share more details at this time. “Ezemvelo will only release its findings at an appropriate time and to an appropriate authority, due to the fact that the investigation is still ongoing.”