The plight of wild horses in drought-stricken Namibia has resulted in three Industrial Services Holdings (InServe) companies stepping up to the plate to assist in delivering 112 teff bales for the Namibia Wild Horses Foundation.
According to the foundation, the wild horses have been in the region for over 100 years. However, due to the severe drought affecting the area for the last five years, the population has drastically declined from 120 in September 2015, to about 75 at present.
InServe companies Concord AngloV3, Concord Namibia, and Afrit combined their resources to deliver 112 bales of teff, each 1.2m long, which had been donated by a generous individual donor from South Africa.
Team effort
Concord Namibia CEO, Francois Smith explains that the company had deployed its mobile cranes at the Neckartal Dam site, about 40km west of Keetmanshoop, when he was alerted to the plight of the starving wild horses. The company coordinated all the logistics in terms of obtaining the teff from the South African donor, and its ultimate delivery to Namibia.
Anglo-V3 Crane Hire provided trucks from Rustenburg to collect the teff from its location in Brits, about 73km away. Afrit, in turn, supplied waterproof tarpaulins and netting to cover the teff to ensure it remained dry during transit.
“Initially the plan was to just drop the teff off in Keetmanshoop, and let the foundation transfer it 200km to Aus, where the horses are found. However, we decided to transport all the bales directly to the feeding ground in Aus,” Francois explains. Two super-link trailer trucks, with 6m and 12m long trailers, were used.
Sightings of these human-shy animals are rare. But such was their hunger, they immediately approached the teff bales that were loaded from the trucks onto bakkies, and began feeding straightaway – in the presence of their human helpers.
Namibia Wild Horses Foundation Ambassador, Jan Van Blerk, expressed his deep gratitude to the InServe companies who had banded together. “As InServe companies, we are proud to have been able to assist with this critical conservation project. We make an urgent appeal to other companies to assist the Namibia Wild Horses Foundation in any manner that they can, especially as the drought in the Aus region is ongoing,” Francois concludes.
www.wild-horses-namibia.com
