I'm Joshua Dube,
I am here at Jabulani and HERD.
I work with elephants.
I am one of the senior guys from Zimbabwe who originally came with the elephants
here in South Africa
Joshua, how long have you been with Jabulani?
With Jabulani, I'm sure it's close to 20 years now, because
I have been here from day one when we came here.
So I was the first person who started working with Jabulani when we got here.
Tell me more about when we brought Jabulani over to meet the herd.
It worked wonders when we brought Jabulani into our herd because our tamed herd was unique
They were part of raising some of the orphaned
elephants so when we brought Jabulani in it was not something new to them.
They really accepted him, because they were used to accepting different
elephants from different places.
So it was so amazing that they just accepted
him. Tokwe the Matriarch just smelt him and took him in as her baby.
I come from Zimbabwe, in Chinhoyi, north of Harare, that's where I was living.
I was on a farm, where I had started working,
in agriculture first and then I worked with animals - cattle, horses, ostriches
I have been enjoying animals
all over, so that was my career. So from there, I was attached to elephants...
Because I noticed that elephants were like humans.
They can understand and you can manage to communicate with them.
So from there I started getting attached to elephants and now I'm still with the elephants.
Did you grow up with animals as well? When you were young, did you have dogs and cattle?
Yes, we do have dogs. My father was a foreman on
a farm and he was the only person allowed to have a dog on the farm.
So we have dogs and I was in love with dogs so much and from there I was in love with animals.
Tell me about your family and your home.
I have six children and
four of them are still in Zimbabwe and I have two here in South Africa. Some they are in school.
I am working for them, that they can manage to get school fees and food,
because the situation in Zimbabwe is not so good.
My family are so happy, but I am trying by all means to take care of them.
Tell me about your two sons that are here.
My sons which are here are Emmanuel and
Tich. They are working here and they are doing good. They are learning from me.
It was easy for them to work with elephants because they
saw when I was working with elephants.
Are there any staff members that you are closest to, besides your two sons?
Yes, it's Israel, Stavros, Simba, and Liverson,
those are the people I have been with for long and they are like family.
Joshua, tell us about when you travelled with the elephants from Zimbabwe
all the way to South Africa. How did you manage?
You went into the trucks.
People don't know about that. Tell us how you loaded the elephants and everything.
We did load the elephants into their trucks. One truck had four elephants,
another had four, one had two... So they were all in the crates and were loaded like that.
They dart them, carry them, put them in the trucks,
wake them up and then start driving all the way from Zimbabwe.
When we reached the border, we stopped there, give them water on top of the truck,
and we came with another truck without elephants, which dropped us there.
And then we walked. It was new to us, we didn't know about South Africa, so we were quite excited.
And then we reached South Africa and we talked with our elephants so
that they would know that we were still with them.
Because that's the most important thing, they must not stress that maybe they are
going to be taken somewhere where they are going to be alone.
So it was important for them to see that still they have their guys here. So we were talking to
them, to let them know we were there. And then they drove them from there up to here, Kapama.
And then we drove from the border to here... Kapama, and started to offload the elephants here.
And all the stables were ready for them.
When we started offloading them it was already the following day, maybe something past three.
Then we offload them and put them all in their stables and talk to them
and they were all happy to know we were still with them, for company.
They knew it was not something to be scared of because they had their guys with them.
How long was the drive from Zimbabwe to South Africa?
It was a long drive. It took at least two days.
Because we started to load them at something past four
on the one day. We travelled the whole night until the morning at the
border post, and that morning until the afternoon... so at least two days.
What have you learnt from the elephants and from nature, when you're out in the bush?
I have learnt so much, because when we came from Zimbabwe with our elephants
and started to introduce them to Kapama wildlife, where there's lots of game...
In Zimbabwe we only had cattle and horses so
the elephants didn't know anything about other animals.
So when we got them here, it took time for them
to get used to knowing there are other animals in the bush.
So we took them in the bush and they saw giraffe and zebra and they were running away from
those animals
I still remember one day, they were running away and everyone just followed. It took us
maybe five days to find three of the elephants which were running away into the bush.
It was amazing to know that animals can learn to know that there are other
animals in the bush, rather than just being domesticated and staying on a farm with cows.
So things changed a lot over the years?
Yes, things have changed. And then I
saw that the elephants now know that there are other animals in the bush.
And now, are they scared for lions and rhinos?
Ah, now they know, they have learnt so much from other animals. So if they see a rhino,
they go for it, chasing it away, it's like now they are dominant of the bush, they know all the
animals in the bush.
Tell me more about that specific day. You started walking early that morning.
Yes we started walking early that morning and we reached here at 1,
2 o'clock and arrange all the elephants to be at Whiskey One dam.
And then we brought Jabulani in, and then the elephants were there
and they just met up, started talking, rumbling, and communicating just like that.
Looking at the elephant herd, is there one specific elephant that you like more and identify
with?
Yes, Jabulani, I like him more, because
his character is good and the way he has raised his group. He is a good elephant.
In fact if you compare him to the other elephants,
I really don't know the herd's background. I just saw them when they were already grown up.
With Jabulani, I heard about his background and I
worked with him and could see how he was. He was a good elephant.
That's the most important thing with elephants,
they get used to people they work with. Like with a baby elephant, they get attached with a person.
If you put them with one person they will get attached to that person. Whenever
that person is not there it is a problem. The same applies with the big elephants.
What makes elephants so amazing?
Ah, elephants, it's their intelligence.
That's what makes them so amazing, because they are like humans if you look at them.
The way they do things, the way they gather round, if anything happens
the way they protect each other.
How do you see Khanyisa? What does she mean to you?
Ah, Khanyisa is another story, because I meet so many baby elephants, which were
in a better condition than Khanyisa and yet they didn't make it.
Khanyisa was in a bad
condition and I didn't think that she would make it. But I saw that she has made it.
It's so amazing that God can do miracles.
Just do something that you don't really know how it happened.
During COVID you were in Zimbabwe and when you came back did things change, were you amazed?
Yes I was amazed because I saw everything was still operating the same.
I was thinking that maybe COVID-19 would affect some of the
elephants or something is going to happen, especially with Khanyisa.
And then I just heard that Khanyisa was so good and doing well,
she had joined the herd, she was part of the elephants. It just worked wonders.
What is your favourite part of the job?
My favourite part of the job is playing with baby elephants,
because they teach me more about elephants.
If you are playing with them, they will show you most of their character,
how they learn to be an elephant and then you also learn from them.
Big elephants, they are mostly concerned with food. The most
important thing for a big elephant is food. They are eating all the time.
Baby elephants, if they are full then they can be playful
and you can see more when they are playing.