This is an excerpt from an article written and published online by SA People on 08 February, 2020
An undisclosed number of lions attacked and killed a 21-year-old woman at a private game reserve near Bela Bela in the Limpopo province of South Africa, on Thursday afternoon.
The woman has been identified as Swane van Wyk (although several local reports named her as Swans van Wyke), an animal lover who worked with lions at the reserve.
The reserve has not been named by the South African Police Service (SAPS), but on Van Wyk’s Facebook page it says she worked at Zwartkloof Private Game Reserve, and Zwartkloof list her as their Game Manager on their website. (SAPeople.com has contacted Zwartkloof for comment.) The reserve advertises its sport and adventure camps; and photos of tourists in front of lion enclosures can be seen on Instagram. According to Blood Lions, the reserve has free roaming animals and a number of white and tawny lions in enclosures.
Van Wyk – who studied at Centurion Academy – was apparently horrifically mauled by at least two lions whilst in the lions’ enclosure, performing her daily duties.