After the hiatus imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic that had devastating effect on many spheres of the economy, including the tourism and wildlife sector. The Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs will host the 33rd Annual Game Auction at Willem Pretorius Nature Resort on the 27th to 28th May 2022.

The Game Auction has become a highlight in the wildlife sector calendar for many years with a revenue of over R10 million for the provincial fiscus. The aim of the auction is to regulate the game populations of the state owned reserves and to optimize revenue generation for Free State Province. The two day auction will compromise the sale of 8109 head of game divided into 117 public hunting Package Lots, 830 Live Game Animals and 5 875 Carcasses in various Packages.

On the first day, 830 live game packages of 12 different species will be auctioned. The packages consist of Black Wildebeest, Eland, Gemsbok, Impala, Red Hartebeest, Ostrich Adult, Sable Antelope, Springbok, Waterbuck, Blue Wildebeest, Cape Mountain Zebra and Plains Zebra.

On the second day, a total of 117 hunting packages consisting of 18 different species will be auctioned. The species will include 78 Trophy Hunts as well as 39 Non-Trophy Hunts.

 Non Trophy Hunts that consist of 23 Game Carcass Packages of 12 Species, 11 Culling Package of 12 Species will be sold. The auction will be catalogue based and is divided into hunting packages and live animals.

As part of the festivities there will be numerous vendor stalls, beer garden, different food outlets and lots of music.

Source: Government of South Africa