Must-see: There’s a hippo in my pool!

A video is doing the rounds on Twitter showing a hippo swimming in a backyard pool.

It was posted by former DA parliamentary leader, Lindiwe Mazibuko.

Although it is unclear if this hippo is the same one the Gauteng department of agriculture warned residents to be on the lookout for on Monday, when a hippopotamus was reportedly roaming the Fourways area near the Jukskei River.

Reports of the first sighting of the animal were in Chartwell near the Fourways area.

The department said it had received a complaint of a sighting on 29 December, and had deployed various law enforcement and conservation bodies to help locate the animal.

“To date, the hippo has not caused any damage nor posed a threat to any human or animal lives. It is believed that the hippo originates from the Hartbeespoort Dam area and that, if left in peace, will return voluntarily to the area of origin,” said the department.

Hippos have been known to get very aggressive. As such the department has asked members of the public not to approach or feed it if they spot it.

Currently, Rob Ferreira Hospital staff are being praised for being able to save Shaun Phillips’s leg  after his encounter with a hippo, in which the animal on the Elephant Whispers property near Hazyview bit his leg.

In the video, two men conversing in Afrikaans can be heard commenting on how big the head of the hippo is and using some profanity to address the hippo as well.

Mzansi, being Mzansi, couldn’t resist commenting on the video.

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