Durban — South Coast snake catcher was pleased that he caught the first green mamba for this year, on Tuesday, at South Ridge road in Southbroom.
Sarel van der Merwe said he got a call from a security officer who told him there was an aggressive mamba on the road.
Professor Mpisane, who is a patrolling officer at Wolf Security, said he saw the mamba when he was patrolling around Southbroom.
“When I saw the mamba crossing the road I stopped the vehicle and got out to take a video. I was scared because it is known to be dangerous, so I stood a bit far from it and zoomed it in,” he said.
Mpisane said the mamba came by his vehicle to try to look for a hole but could not find one. He said it tried to climb a wall on one of the houses but failed.
“The 2-metre long mamba proceeded to another house garden and I called the house owners to show them, and that was when we decided to call Van der Merwe,” Mpisane said.
Van der Merwe said the snake was all over the road.
“The mamba was aggressive but I managed to tame it and eventually got hold of it,” he said.
Last month, Van der Merwe rescued a green mamba from a tree on a property, using a cherry picker to save it. He described it as the catch of the day.
He said that it was impossible to climb the tree. It was straight up, where no one can climb.
He said that across the road are the council offices and the electricity department.
“As I walked in, Gary (Manggos) walked out of his office and Gary knows me… I said ‘Gary, I need a cherry picker’.”
Van der Merwe said that as they walked out of the building, a cherry picker drove past and they whistled at the driver (Ephraim) and Gary asked the driver to help Van der Merwe.
“And that was a blessing,” he said.
“Then the cherry picker driver refused to take me up because he was scared. Then Gary got into the cherry picker but it was like going for a course and the whole bucket was shaky. I told him he was going to get us both killed and I convinced the cherry picker driver to trust me to take me up and he took me up and we caught it (the snake),” Van der Merwe explained.
Daily News