Move over, Black Mambas, here come the Wild Coast’s Green Griffons

Nine Eastern Cape women are doing a tough basic training course to become the first all-women squad offield rangerson the Wild Coast — and the first in the province. Based on the pioneering Black Mambas from the Greater Kruger National Park, the Green Griffons who pass the course will do ranger duty at the Mkambati Nature Reserve. Their lead trainer isformer Green Scorpions leader Dr Div de Villiers, 62, who spoke of his exhaustion at having to do 67 push-ups in 60 seconds and 47 sit-ups a minute with the trainees.

“You can’t expect trainees to do it if you can’t,” he said at the start of the 17.5km Discovery Surfers Challenge, itself a gruelling trail run along the rocky, sandy East Coast from Kwelera to Nahoon, on Saturday. De Villiers said the first Green Griffons to succeed in completing the training would become “the Eastern Cape’s answer to the Black Mambas”. “The Green Griffons will be responsible for ensuring that the GweGwe concession area of the Mkambati Nature Reserve and the adjacent Pondoland MPA are protected.” The trainees are all Mpondo women from villages surrounding the Mkambati reserve.

They were selected from a squad of 24 put forward by the local chiefs and leaders forming part of the Mkambati Land Trust. “Two pre-selection courses were completed in 2025 and the current basic training will last for four weeks at an isolated, remote camp,” De Villiers said. “Drill, physical training, route marches, self-defence, bush survival, environmental law, conservation, tracking and other vital skills are being taught.” An aspect of the training was finding their confident “ranger voice” which assisted in dealing with a number of issues where male voices had to be confronted in situations of protecting sensitive environmental areas from trespassing, misdemeanours and crimes. They were also being trained to speak to the public and media and had open access to this side of their work.