*WARNING: Story contains images which may upset sensitive readers.
A Kensington man says he got a helse skrik after waking up to find a Cape Cobra snoozing on his head.
Cyril Kayser, 43, adds that he was so scared to move that he laid with the 1.5 metre-long snake on his kop for hours while waiting for help to arrive.
According to the Cape of Good Hope SPCA, the Cape Cobra is highly venomous and responsible for the most snake-bite deaths in the Western Cape.
Cyril, who lives in a bushy informal settlement close to 18th Avenue, says: “I almost peed myself wet. I was sleeping in the bed, then during the night I felt something slithering over my head.”
He recalls how he was frozen stokstyf with fear and decided to wait to see if the slang would move.
“I had to wait for a few hours until the morning. So when the snake slid off me, I went for my stuff to catch the snake,” he explains.
“Ek het baie bang gevoel. I grabbed it behind the head and placed it in the bucket.”
Cyril says that as he placed the long brown snake in the bucket, it flattened its hood and tried to bite him.
He quickly grabbed a pane of glass and placed it over the bucket, and trails of venom could be seen glistening on it.
Cape of Good Hope SPCA spokesperson Marisol Gutierrez confirms: “Our wildlife department has confirmed that the snake is a Cape Cobra.”
Local snake handler Ashley Foster collected the reptile from Cyril but advised residents who come across slange on their properties to rather leave it alone and call in the experts, “because if a snake is left alone it will stay where it is”.