Durban - The portfolio committee on environmental affairs is to provide Parliament with information on how to crack rhino poaching syndicates, its chairman, Jackson Mthembu, revealed on Sunday, saying the aim was to get “back to basics”.
Speaking to the Daily News after a series of public meetings across the country, and in Hluhluwe and Durban at the weekend, Mthembu said the feedback he would provide on Tuesday would include details of how easy it was for poachers and other criminals to cross South Africa’s borders carrying weapons.
The purpose of the public hearings was to consult rural communities and secure their help in fighting rhino poaching, he said.
“The people arrested for rhino poaching are mere foot soldiers. We need to work on how to track these masterminds who aren’t in South Africa. We also need to look at our border and its security,” he said in an interview about the rhino slaughter.
The meetings were held as the number of rhinos killed for their horns in South Africa reached 695 as of August 17, including 57 poached in KZN.
“People come in with weapons to kill rhino. How will these people with weapons also not kill people? We need to work together to find a solution,” Mthembu said.
Impressed with the turnout from KwaZulu-Natal communities, he said more than 600 people had attended each of the public hearings on Friday and Saturday.
He was also impressed with the level of engagement, with people coming out quite strongly in support of saving the rhino from extinction.
“If we don’t involve the community, we won’t win this battle,” he said.
“We’re going back to basics.”
Many people, he said, had discussed the need to educate communities who lived near game reserves, often in poverty, and were easily lured into rhino poaching for large sums of money.
Portfolio committee member Terri Stander, the DA’s spokeswoman on environmental affairs who attended the hearings, said greed was a contributing factor as known syndicates from Mozambique were purchasing luxury properties with funds from poaching.
According to the Department of Environmental Affairs, Africa’s white rhino, which numbers about 20 000, and black rhino (4 800) are endangered. Most of both species are in South Africa.
Since 2008, there has been a surge in rhino poaching. In 2008, 83 rhino were killed and the next year the number rose to 122 and then 333 in 2010 and 448 in 2011.
By last year a total of 1 004 rhinos were killed.
Mthembu said people were asking for the school curriculum to include information on rhino poaching so that children would
become more aware of the animals and not fall prey to poaching syndicates when they became adults.
Some were also in favour of looking at legalising the trade of rhino horns to protect the rhino from harm.
Stander said she too initially agreed with this idea until she researched it further.
Using the example of the legal trade of ivory first discussed in 1998, she said it took the government five years to finalise legislation on the matter and during this time ivory poaching soared as the international community was told it was legal, but the product could not get on to the market.
“Even if we want to legally trade in rhino horn, we’re not recognising that it would take another two years before the trade ban is lifted and a further five years for legislation to be passed. A seven-year assault that would also lead to the soaring of rhino poaching,” said Stander.
“Some have said that the rhino population in the Kruger National Park would be extinct in seven years if poaching continued.”
The price of rhino horn would also still need to be negotiated, she said. “If the price is too low, it would be too cheap and lead to a high demand. If it is too high, poaching would still be a problem.
“If we wanted to trade legally in rhino horn this should have been raised three years ago,” Stander said. “The department is now desperate. The real focus should be the protection of the rhino.”
Stander also felt there was not a diverse representation from communities at these hearings as private rhino owners did not attend, but agreed with Mthembu that people were passionate about saving the rhino.
She also said the fact that Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa also attended both hearings was an important indication of the government’s concern about rhino poaching.
The next session of public hearings takes place in Mpumalanga this Friday and Saturday.
Tuesday’s parliamentary debate can be viewed on DSTV’s Parliamentary Channel 408.
Meanwhile, there are plans to bring students to South Africa from rhino horn “consumer countries” to see for themselves how poached rhinos are killed, so they can “be part of the pain and sorrow we all feel”.
at a media briefing last week, Mthembu did not name the countries, but they are are generally considered to be Vietnam, China and Taiwan.
He was responding to a question about whether the anti-poaching message was being spread in these countries.
Mthembu also said his committee believed it should speak to its parliamentary counterparts in the consumer countries about the poaching that was decimating rhino numbers in South Africa.