Kuruman Reptile Park is the new home for one of the animal kingdom’s least understood creatures: reptiles, and specifically snakes.
Before there was a park, there was Bokamoso Ntehelang, commonly known as “Buru”. Others call him Mokwepa, a Setswana name for the black mamba. He grew up with a passion and care for snakes, made them his best friends, and set out to infuse that love into his community, so that they too would view nature’s best balancer with as much care as he does.
Kuruman Reptile Park, built and established with the support of the John Taolo Gaetsewe Developmental Trust, led by Mr Tumelo Mpolokeng, is now the sanctuary and host of Buru’s unique work to the world. A first in the Northern Cape and South Africa, this trailblazing conservation project opened its doors on 29 October 2026. Kuruman shall never be the same again.
In the John Taolo Gaetsewe District, residents rarely phone emergency services or the SPCA about a snake. They phone Bokamoso Ntehelang. The community gave him two names: “Buru”, the Snake Guru, and “Mokwepa”, a vernacular name for the black mamba.
He has lived with snakes in his own home for more than fifteen years, convinced that the region’s most feared animals are its most misunderstood.
“I never caught a snake because I was brave. I caught it because I wanted to know why it had come, and nobody else was asking.”
The clips open muted. Tap the speaker on any video to hear Buru in his own words. Swipe or scroll to move between chapters.
Bokamoso Future Ntehelang was born in Kuruman on 18 May 1992, in the Kalahari thornveld where reptiles are abundant and seldom welcome. In most households a snake was killed on sight. He wanted to know why it had come.
By 2003, aged about eleven, he was catching reptiles. The interest never waned.
Family prints, courtesy of the Ntehelang family.
His removal and relocation service rests on a single principle: rescue, not destruction. He refuses to buy wild-caught snakes, opposes the local capture and trade of indigenous species, and practises catch-and-release.
Every animal relocated rather than killed preserves a rodent predator, and with it an ecosystem service of real value to township households and farms alike.
“People say a snake is dangerous. A snake is afraid. If you leave it alone, it leaves you alone. That is the whole lesson, and it has taken me years to make Kuruman believe it.”
“Every snake I relocate is one less snake killed and one more rat eaten. That is conservation in a township, not in a textbook.”
The work carries risk. Buru has survived venomous bites, most recently a bite to the face in June 2026, which he documented frankly for his followers as a lesson in occupational hazard.
The regulatory path was harder still. Before he held permits, he was arrested more than once for possessing protected indigenous species. Rather than abandon the work, he resolved to pursue it through lawful channels. That decision set the course for everything that followed.
Handling shown on this page is by a certified handler. Never attempt it.
Buru’s Facebook page functions as an unpolished field diary: daily rescues, heavy constrictors, candid accounts of bites. Combined with an SABC News In-Depth profile in February 2023, it established a documented record of competence that institutions could not ignore.
The John Taolo Gaetsewe Developmental Trust consulted him directly for its Feasibility Study for a Snake Park, then funded his professional training, culminating in certification in advanced venomous snake handling.
“We saw Buru, who had been doing the work for two decades without a building, a permit or a licensed conservation business. The Trust’s job was to give him all three.”
The John Taolo Gaetsewe Developmental Trust sponsors and hosts the Kuruman Reptile Park. It financed the feasibility study, Buru’s training and the construction of the facility on the R31 at Seoding, and carried the permit application through the Northern Cape Department of Environment and Nature Conservation.
The facility opens with purpose-built enclosures, a trained team and the statutory registers a zoological institution requires. No animal goes on display until it has fed and behaved normally in its finished habitat for fourteen consecutive days.
From steel frame to finished house on the R31, Seoding.
Under constructionSeoding, 2026
Permit FAUNA 1229/2024 · issued 9 October 2025 · valid to 1 October 2030 · Buru is named on the permit.
Reptile Galaxy on the R31 at Seoding is the first permitted facility of its kind in the Northern Cape. The permit covers seventeen species. The opening collection is entirely non-venomous: a deliberate choice that puts visitor safety and close-contact education first.
“Mining wealth leaves this district every day. Kuruman Reptile Galaxy is one way we make some of it stay, as jobs, as skills and as a reason for visitors to stop in Kuruman.”
“Reptile Galaxy is the first place in this province where a child can stand close to a python and leave with respect instead of fear.”
“We built the Kuruman Reptile Galaxy as a testament of the work the JTG Trust was established to do.”
“Reptile Galaxy is not where Kuruman’s snakes are kept. It is where they are finally understood.”
Fifteen minutes. Buru in his own words, with the story told in captions.
R31, Seoding, Kuruman, Northern Cape, 8460.
Opening from Thursday 29 October 2026.
Call or WhatsApp Buru: 067 054 8964
A John Taolo Gaetsewe Developmental Trust initiative.
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