In the Kruger National Park rhino numbers are believed to have dropped from 10 000 to under 3 000 in past 15 years. Photo: Amanda Watson
It’s not rocket science. Harsher sentences – both locally and abroad – need to be dished out to those who poach rhinos for their horns, or smuggle those horns to other countries.
The South African government reported 448 rhinos were killed across the country in 2022 – just three fewer than the previous year.
It’s welcoming to hear a Singapore court on Friday sentenced Gumede Sthembiso Joel, a 33-year-old South African man, to two years in jail for smuggling rhino horns. It was the heaviest sentence handed down by the city state for trafficking wildlife parts.
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Joel was arrested at Singapore’s Changi airport in 2022 after authorities found 20 pieces of rhino horn, weighing 34.7kg in his bags. He was travelling from South Africa to Laos through Singapore. It’s believed the haul was worth almost R17 million.
District judge Eddy Tham said “the harm caused is clearly greater”.
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Tham is right, and unless we start dishing out harsher sentences to send out a strong message globally, the war on rhino poaching is never going to end.
Just like copper cable theft that continues to hamper our power supply, our government needs to make a statement that it means business. Harsh jail sentences are needed. Failure will only end tragically
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