Mahlobo gets off scot-free despite rhino poaching allegations

Minister of State Security David Mahlobo is not under investigation over his alleged involvement with Guan Jiang Guang, believed to have links to the illegal trade in rhino horn and allegedly a level-three-tier rhino-horn trafficker.

This was confirmed yesterday by Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi, after Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe and Mulaudzi had both told news agency Al Jazeera in November that government – and the police – were looking into claims made by Guang that Mahlobo’s wife was involved in the illegal rhino horn trade.

The Hawks were investigating a Guang establishment – frequented by Mahlobo – for being a brothel, said Mulaudzi.

In January, Mulaudzi told The Citizen that Guang’s whereabouts were unknown and it was believed he had fled the country using forged documents.

The news goes hand in hand with claims by international not-for-profit organisation WildAid, which fights illegal wildlife trade, that the South African government is not doing enough to combat rhino poaching.

“For years we have seen one South African elite after another evade justice, despite orchestrating the killing of rhinos and the trafficking of their horns,” said WildAid CEO Peter Knights, who was in South Africa to release the organisation’s report on South Africa’s failure to prosecute rhino-related crimes and how it could precipitate South Africa losing the “second rhino war”.

Knight said the problem was that when there was corruption at the top, it was inevitably followed by corruption all the way down the food chain.

And, at the very top, are outstanding allegations against Mahlongo.

“One of the major reasons the interventions by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species haven’t worked is because although a lot of poachers have been arrested here in South Africa, and a lot of poachers have been shot, authorities haven’t prosecuted any of the kingpins and middlemen,” Knight said.

“So they’ve gone about trying to stop organised crime by essentially taking out foot soldiers,” added Knights.

“No organised crime syndicate in the history of this planet has ever been stopped by taking out foot soldiers, because they are essentially replaceable,” Knight said.

WildAid estimated about 300 poachers had been shot since the explosion in poaching, most of them in SANParks’ flagship Kruger National Park.

“Our concern is that at a time when we’re making very clear, measurable progress, if some of the kingpins were taken out, we could actually win this thing,” said Knight.

Read the WildAid report findings below: