Durban - Environment Minister Edna Molewa has praised the Al Jazeera TV network for its efforts to expose links between rhino poaching and organised crime - but also rebuked it for casting serious aspersions on State Security Minister David Mahlobo based on “wild claims” and “flimsy” evidence.
Molewa, who's currently in Morocco for a UN climate change conference, issued a statement via her department on Tuesday in the aftermath of the weekend screening of the Al Jazeera documentary The Poachers Pipeline.
Based on undercover interviews with self-confessed rhino horn dealers, the documentary screened sensational claims intimating that Mahlobo and his wife could be linked to illegal rhino horn smuggling via a Chinese national, who owns a massage parlour in Mbombela.
The documentary also suggested that Mahlobo might have been involved in cancelling the contract of a private intelligence group involved in anti-poaching investigations around the Kruger National Park in 2014.
Mahlobo has flatly denied the allegations and threatened legal action for defamation against Al Jazeera and private intelligence consultant Nigel Morgan.
Reacting to the furore, Molewa said she had noted the serious allegations.
“As the department tasked with conserving, among others, our iconic rhino population, and co-ordinating the actions taken by the security departments to combat rhino poaching, the Department of Environmental Affairs will continue to use all means at our disposal to end rhino poaching.
“The film-makers should be lauded for their investigative work that draws attention to the links between rhino poaching in general and organised crime, a fact the department has always maintained.
“Equally, our integrated strategic management of the rhino (issue), which has begun to yield some success, must also be lauded.
“In the same vein, I would caution against rushing to cast aspersions on Minister Mahlobo simply on the basis of him being photographed in certain company,” said Molewa.
“Public representatives are requested to pose for photographs by members of the public all the time, and to use this clearly outdated image to conclude that the minister is somehow involved in a serious crime like poaching is at the very least flimsy and at the worst defamatory.”
Molewa said that in some circumstances, members of the public circulated such images to suggest they had personal relationships with public figures, or to “name-drop”.
But this provided insufficient grounds to implicate someone in any illegal activities.
“The Department of Environmental Affairs notes with concern allegations that Minister Mahlobo was involved in terminating the services of a private service provider contracted to SANParks to perform certain services in the Kruger National Park.
“It is worrying that the company’s wild claims were untested in the documentary.
“The SANParks board, following consultation with the minister of environmental affairs, terminated the professional services agreement with the company in question in full compliance with the law.
“The reasons for the termination of their contract are well known. These have been explained to South Africans through the media on a number of occasions, and had nothing to do with Minister Mahlobo,” Molewa said.
“The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) are now investigating this matter,” she added.
The Mercury