SA in push to sell horn stockpile

11/12/2010, Police officer holding a Rhino Horn; confiscated from four men. Heidleburg Police Station, Picture. Mujahid Safodien

11/12/2010, Police officer holding a Rhino Horn; confiscated from four men. Heidleburg Police Station, Picture. Mujahid Safodien

Published Jul 4, 2013

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Cape Town - The cabinet has approved a move that will see South Africa applying for international permission to sell its stockpile of rhino horns in a one-off deal.

This will include the state’s verified and annually audited stockpile of 16 437kg of rhino horn and the – as yet – unverified 2 091kg of horn in the hands of private owners throughout the country.

This proposal will be put to the 17th Conference of Parties of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES COP17) in 2016.

If the sale is approved and the value of the horns remains at what is reported to be the current black market price of about $65 000 a kilogram (about R645 000), the total 18 528 tons of horn would be worth about R11.95-billion, though it seems unlikely any sale would reach this price.

Based on a gold price of $1 256 an ounce, rhino horn on the black market is slightly over 47 percent more expensive than gold.

At a media briefing on Wednesday following Tuesday’s cabinet decision, Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa and her senior biodiversity manager, Fundisile Mketeni, emphasised that the proposal was still a work-in-progress, that details needed to be worked out – including what proportion of any sale proceeds would go to the private owners – and that the suit of other measures to control and reduce rhino poaching would continue as well.

The cabinet has set up a committee to manage the proposal, headed by Molewa and including her ministerial counterparts in Tourism, Science and Technology, International Relations and Co-operation, Trade and Industry, and Economic Development.

Molewa’s department will report back later this month to all those who contributed to last year’s Rhino Issue Management process, led by former SA National Parks chief executive Mavuso Msimang, whose report included this sale proposal.

“South Africa can’t continue to be held hostage by the syndicates slaughtering our rhinos,” Molewa said.

“We will have to work in partnership with stakeholders and experts to ensure a feasible model for trade is proposed at the next COP17 in South Africa, with due consideration of all views in rhino conservation.

“We do have the ability to make this scarce resource available without impacting on the species, through the implementation of a regulated trade system. In addition, this will assist us in further promoting the conservation of the species and growing the population in South Africa and other range states (where rhinos occur).”

South Africa is home to 73 percent of the world rhino population and more than 92 percent of Africa’s rhinos.

Molewa said research had shown if current poaching trends and mortalities continued, 2026 would be the year when the rhino extinction process started – with deaths exceeding births.

“If you think about it, that’s just around the corner. That’s scary – we would not want to get there.”

Asked whether the proposed sale would not stimulate the market for rhino horn, Molewa said they were “not underestimating” this possibility, but added: “The whole world is entering uncharted seas – we must know this gogga, we must deal with this gogga.”

- Cape Argus

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