Rhinos Gone, Buffalos Never Came: The Municipality’s Eight-year Wildlife Deal Drags On
By The Coastal Reporter
10 September 2026 · 2 min read
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Councillors must choose whether 10 cape buffalos should be hunted, sold or swapped in a deal that has dragged on since three white rhinos were exchanged for the animals in 2018.
A rural and struggling Eastern Cape local council is battling to close an eight-year-old wildlife exchange deal of white rhinos and cape buffalos it negotiated and successfully entered into with a local game reserve owner.
A report tabled before the recent meeting of the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality has revealed how, in 2018, the council concluded a transaction with Wildschutsberg Game Reserve owner Greg Harvey. This was meant to be a biological asset swap with the three council-owned white rhinos, at the time valued at R670 000, going to Harvey in exchange for his farm giving the municipality 10 cape buffalos. While the rhinos were handed over to Harvey, the cape buffalos never arrived.
The council meeting took place on August 25, 2026 in Komani (formerly Queenstown).
The councillors have now been asked by the officials who prepared the report to decide how the issue of the buffalos should finally be dealt with. The report recommended that the council decide between either hunting the buffalos or selling them at their current location, or even swapping them for other game species.
The Coastal understands that the arrangement stalled because the municipality could not provide the facilities and management plan needed for the buffalo at the time. With the animals have still not been formally disposed of or exchanged, the municipality is now left with an unresolved asset transaction -—years after the original agreement.
The city’s management says it has spoken to Harvey, the owner of the game farm, about practical options to finalise the matter. Harvey, according to the report, prefers that the animals be hunted where they are now as this is the quickest and most practical way to end the long-running deal.
It is not clear what decision was taken at the council meeting. Questions to the municipality were not responded to. The Coastal had wanted to ask the municipality whether the public got fair value from this unusual wildlife deal, why it has remained unresolved for years, and whether the delay has helped or harmed the municipality's interests.
The report had recommended that councillors note the status of the exchange, that it has remained incomplete since 2018, and to authorize the acting municipal manager to finalize the required agreement with the legal and compliance manager. Should the council agrees to the recommended action, a new written agreement will also have to be concluded with Harvey.
