Pretoria - Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Buyelwa Sonjica announced that a dedicated unit tasked to fight rhino poaching had started operating on Tuesday.
Speaking at a summit on rhino poaching in Pretoria, the minister said it worried her that stiffer penalties against poaching did not appear to be having the desired effect of deterring poachers.
“Unfortunately the rhino population in South Africa is now being threatened by an upsurge in the illegal killing of rhinos and the leakage of illegally obtained rhino horn stocks into the international illegal trade.”
She said that so far this year 227 rhinos had been illegally killed and at the current rate more than 300 animals could be killed by poachers by the end of the year.
“The establishment of an interim National Wildlife Crime Reaction Unit is aimed at responding to the current spate of wildlife crimes and more specifically the upsurge of rhino poaching and smuggling of rhino horn,” she said.
The unit would be led by the department of environmental affairs, but would include members from the SA Police Service as well as the National Prosecuting Authority, the South African National Parks and Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.
She said a “select team of the SAPS Hawks” had also been assigned to focus on rhino poaching activities.
Fundisile Mketeni, the department's deputy director general of biodiversity and conservation, said that if the unit proved to be successful it would become a permanent structure in the fight against poaching.
Advocate Johan Kruger from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) told delegates there were currently 26 rhino poaching cases involving at least 80 accused people before South African courts.
He said the NPA was using a variety of tools at its disposal to prosecute poachers.
Not only were poaching laws now being used, but he said the NPA was turning its attention to using other laws to ensure poachers were convicted.
He said the NPA was looking at charging poachers with offences such as breaching aviation laws, breaking organised crime laws, corruption, poaching and tax evasion.
The NPA would also be using the prevention of organised crime laws in future as most poachers worked in syndicates, even if they were informally set up.
Earlier in the day, national police spokesperson Colonel Vishnu Naidoo said 21 people have been arrested in connection with rhino poaching in South Africa in the past three weeks.
Eleven people, including two veterinarians, a pilot and a game farmer, all allegedly part of a rhino poaching syndicate, were arrested in Limpopo last month.
Kruger said the majority of the foreign nationals apprehended in the rhino poaching syndicates came from Vietnam and China.
However, Sonjica ruled out confronting the Vietnam government over the issue. She said South Africa would soon be signing a memorandum of understanding on environment with Vietnam.
She said “it won't be confrontation” but rather that rhino poaching would “be raised in the context of diplomacy”. - Sapa