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Cape Town - A buffalo bull named Inala was sold for R168m at an auction held at the Thaba Tholo Game Reserve.
Thaba Tholo is a 36 000 hectare private game farm in Limpopo. Rubin Els, general manager of Thaba Tholo, told Fin24 on Tuesday that Inala was first noticed as a young bull in the free roaming area of the game farm in 2011.
He said the game farm is 15km wide and about as big as 74 000 rugby fields, or about the distance between Pretoria and Johannesburg.
"Our business is game farming with a strong focus on its side product of nature conservation. It is nature conservation which pays for itself," explained Els.
"We pay for the maintenance of the game farm by generating our own money. We do not get any subsidies from government. We generate money by means of breeding and selling game."
He said an auction, therefore, takes place on the game farm about once a year.
'The big three'
Inala is now about 9 years old. He was bought by a number of shareholders who formed a partnership for the purpose. The main partners, Piet du Toit, Wicus Pretorius and Norman Adami, are well-known business people in the area, who also have their own game farms. They pride themselves on the quality of their game.
"Since the industry became aware of Inala, he sort of developed his own type of brand as one of the top young bulls in the country," said Els. "He will now continue his brand and his calves will be very sought after. In this way his genetics can be distributed around the country," said Els.
Earlier this year, Du Toit was in the news for auctioning off a quarter share in buffalo bull Horison for R44m. Horison was regarded as the bull with the biggest horns in the world (1.397m). Du Toit had bought Horison for R26m in 2012 in partnership with Adami and Ben Botha.
About three years, ago billionaire Johann Rupert paid R40m for a Thabo Tholo buffalo bull.
READ: R44m for quarter of a buffalo
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