30
Colonel De Villiers looked around the tent for someone to blame.
As commanding officer of the military component of the operation, the buck stopped with him. He’d thought it would be a good way to end a thirty-five-year career in the South African Army – a high point that would set the benchmark for future culling operations. Instead, it was his ticket to ignominy. He had summoned all the senior police, army, air force and national parks representatives to a crisis meeting. People were talking on cell phones, their frantic reports filling the tent with nothing more than hot air. De Villiers ran a finger around the neck of the T-shirt under his camouflage battle-dress shirt. He looked at Jacob Mandile, from national parks’ investigative services, raising his eyebrows hopefully as Mandi
