The "African Game" programs were apparently a huge success, since they drew the ire of the Wildlife Action Group of South Africa. This coalition of animal rights organizations made a formal complaint to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa, in which they asked for investigation and judgment by the Commission on their claim that the programs portrayed them unjustly, that the programs appeared to be unduly biased towards wildlife management that included hunting. They also complained that the programs appeared to be part of the government's plan to enlist public support for the upcoming attempt to introduce, once again, a plan in CITES for the resumption of trade in ivory and other wildlife products.

The complaint to the Commission was mainly that it had been unfair that a public broadcasting corporation had given credence to professional wildlife management, and had denied credence to animal rights preferences that management be done without killing any animals. In other words, animal rights organizations had not been invited to participate in production of "The African Game", and they wanted the Commission to hold a hearing in which they might be vindicated. "The African Game" had been perceived by animal rights groups as terribly damaging to their reputations.

Surprisingly, when the hearing was held, no representative from the Wildlife Action Group of South Africa attended. The South African Broadcasting Complaints Commission dismissed the complaint. Those who had participated in production of "The African Game" issued a challenge to the animal rightists to appear in a televised debate on the matter, but no response to this invitation was received.