No improvement: Rhino population struggles to recover from poaching

The Kruger National Park rhino population has not recovered in the 20 years since it has been a target for poaching, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Barbara Creecy said yesterday.

“It’s not a secret the rhino population in the Kruger Park was severely battered through almost 20 years of poaching,” Creecy said.

“It is well known the population has not recovered and a contributory factor to that situation would be the prolonged drought that we saw undermining fertility and breeding rates.”

She said 231 rhinos were killed in the first six months of this year.

“These figures represent an 11% decrease, or a decline of 28 animals killed for their horn, compared to last year,” she said.

In the last six months, 42 rhinos were poached in the Kruger and 143 in KwaZulu-Natal, of which 46 were in privately owned nature reserves and 143 in provincially owned reserves, Creecy added.

This year, 31 suspects were successfully convicted, the majority of whom got custodial sentences.

Creecy said the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) has also designated a prosecutor to facilitate rhino cases in KwaZulu-Natal, where cases have been prioritised.

“In Skukuza, one suspect found guilty of killing three rhinos and possession of unlawful arms and ammunition was sentenced to an effective 32 years’ imprisonment,” she said.

“In another matter, three accused found driving in the Kruger National Park – with five rhino horns hidden in the vehicle, a hunting rifle with a silencer, ammunition and knives – were convicted for the killing of three rhinos, possession of unlawful firearms and ammunition, possession of dangerous weapons and trespassing. Accused number one and two were sentenced to 34 years’ imprisonment, while accused number three was sentenced to 39 years’ imprisonment.

“In Limpopo, an accused was sentenced on a charge of murder, killing of two rhinos, possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition to an effective sentence of 24 years’ imprisonment, and in the Eastern Cape, six accused were convicted on charges of conspiracy to commit rhino poaching and the possession of an unlicensed firearm and ammunition and effectively sentenced to imprisonment ranging from 16 to 20 years.”

Creecy added that an integrity testing system (a polygraph policy) for recruits and an integrity management plan aimed to improve ranger morale and resilience to corruption by providing services that enhance ranger health and well-being, and provide training and counselling, was established to support anticorruption investigations.

She said constant patrols along the identified hot spots and the route to the Kruger will continue.

Creecy said the department earlier this year discussed the challenge relating to the opposing of bail, as rhino poaching was not listed as a scheduled offence, with the director of public prosecutions’ Environmental Working Group.

Professor Ray Jansen, founding member of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Pangolin Specialist Group, said he testified in the Modimolle Magistrate’s Court in Limpopo last week as an expert witness in aggravation of a sentence of a suspect found guilty of poaching in Vaalwater.

“He was caught last year with a pangolin who died last year after fighting for its life for three weeks in an animal care facility,” he said, adding he was disappointed by the sentence.

“I saw that the magistrate didn’t want to prosecute the suspect. He messed up by sentencing him to a R6 000 fine or a threeyear prison sentence,” he said.

Jansen said the suspect could easily poach another pangolin and sell it for over R100 000.

“That fine means nothing. It was supposed to be 15 years or at least 10 years. I am so disappointed,” he said.