It is early in the morning and Anton Scheffer, who
runs a private
anti-poaching operation in Northern KwaZulu Natal, is
sending his guards off on patrol. The wildlife here
is fair game for any poacher.
One of the fences Anton patrols regularly is on the
border with Mkhuze National Park and he is very concerned
about the high levels of poaching that he sees there.
Anton Scheffer (Anti-poaching operator): "They
definitely have a very serious problem; it's chaos over
there."
Devi Sankaree Govender (Carte Blanche presenter): "How
do you know that?"
Anton: "We work on the game reserve next to them
and I can see what happens on their side of the fence.
I see a lot of poachers, and snares. It is a very big
threat - they are just slaughtering everything in sight.
In the 11 years that Anton has been working in the
field he has seen
hundreds of animals caught in snares.
It is a very cruel and indiscriminate method of killing
animals.
Poachers set up their snares and come back a day or
so later to see what they have caught. Sometimes the
poachers don't come back for fear of being caught by
the park authorities and the struggling animal is left
to die in pain.
Anton: "The buck that are caught in the snares
get stuck there and
no-one knows, until we do another patrol. till we find
the buck in the
snares. So frequently the buck are stuck for a very
long time. We have found snares where the animals have
been stuck for three to four days, and are still alive."
Anton showed us how easily the poachers get into the
park.
Devi: "This is one of the Parks Board boundary
fences in the area of Mkuze. It's evident that poachers
have been here recently. There are
marks up and down this pole, and the fence has definitely
been tampered with."
There seemed to be no lack of evidence of trespassing.
Less than 100 metres down the road Anton found another
access point. He says this hole underneath the fence
was dug in the last 24 hours and it seems the poachers
did not leave empty handed.
Anton: "Looks like a nyala that they took out
of the park, with its red
and white hairs. An nyala ewe."
Mkhuze Game Reserve is one of the jewels in the KwaZulu
Natal's Wildlife crown. It is situated on the north-western
spur of the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park and is a place
of exceptional beauty with a wide diversity of animals,
including their flagship species - the black and white
rhino.
Unfortunately this pristine reputation is being marred
by the fact that
more animals are brutally slaughtered here by poachers
than any other national park in our country.
Devi: "Poaching has always been a problem at Mkhuze
Game Reserve, but lately the situation seems to be getting
out of control. KZN Wildlife commissioned an independent
report to see just how serious the situation was. The
results were alarming."
The report on the illicit bush meat markets says that
on a monthly
average 409 snares are recovered, 31 dead animals are
found in these snares, and the loss of those animals
amounts to close to R 200 000.
That would mean that per year this park loses close
to R 2.5 million
worth of game.
Wayne Elliot, head of KZN Wildlife, initiated this
independent report to get a clearer understanding of
the poaching situation.
Devi: "How serious is the poaching problem?"
Wayne Elliot (Head: KZN Wildlife): "The snaring
levels are extremely
high in certain areas of Mkhuze and, unless we contain
them, obviously there will be a severe impact on wildlife
in the park."
Devi: "There are three methods poachers use to
catch game - guns,
spears, and dogs, and snares. The snares are placed
in bush like this
and can trap anything from a warthog to a rhino.
Snaring is favoured by the poachers because it is easy
to get the wire
for the traps, but it is also very wasteful. When the
poachers cannot
carry all of the meat they have snared, they take what
they can and
leave the rest to rot.
Dr Dave Cooper, the veterinarian for all the parks
in KZN has first hand knowledge of the impact of snaring.
Dr Dave Cooper (KZN Wildlife vet): "You know,
your initial reaction is to be extremely angry, because
it seems so unnecessary. And obviously you're upset,
because the animal. you know what it's gone through.
On the other hand, when you do manage to help that animal,
it's an incredibly satisfying kind of thing, but the
anger never goes away."
Most of the buck that are caught in snares do not survive.
Few rhinos
die from these snares; most of them are strong enough
to break free, but the wire cuts deep into their legs
and causes festering wounds. Dave is called out quite
frequently to deal with these injuries.
Dave: "If one talks just about rhino, as it is
the priority species. I
used to work on about 12 a year. Which doesn't sound
like a lot, but
even if you look at Mkhuze where you have a hundred-and-twenty-odd
rhino, it's almost 10 percent of the population picks
up a snare wound every year."
Given that the circumference of Mkhuze is 180 km, patrolling
the park borders is a very difficult task, even though
there are 58 field rangers dedicated to protecting the
wildlife.
We headed off to speak to Mr Hebert Mthembu, Head of
Mkhuze, to find out whether he could give us accurate
figures on how many animals they are losing due to poaching.
Herbert Mthembu (Head: Mkhuze National Park): "Every
year we are losing up to 60 animals."
Devi: "A month?"
Mr Mthembu: "No a year."
We alerted him to the fact that the report said that
it was a lot more
than that and would he like to check his facts again.
Mr Mthembu : "It's an average of twenty animals
a month. I'm talking about the drought period. it's
twenty animals per month."
Actually the report states that a conservative estimate
is not twenty
animals a month, Mr Mthembu, but twenty animals a week!
And while Mkhuze may find some animals in snares .
Devi: "They actually have no way of knowing how
many animals are killed and taken out of the park and
to the communities."
There are also huge discrepancies in the game count
figures that Wayne showed us, especially in the nyala
numbers - a species favoured by the poachers.
In 2003 there were 5 680 nyala. 610 were culled. In
the next game count there were only 3 140. That means
that nearly 2 000 nyala are
unaccounted for. Their net worth is about R18-million.
Wayne: "Do we know exactly the amount of animals
we are losing? An honest answer has to be, 'No, we don't'.
Do we have an estimate of how many animals we're losing?
Yes, and it varies, depending on the species and who
you listen to. Is it a significant threat? Ja. Are we
containing it? . And the answer is, 'Yes we are'."
We found contrary evidence on a short walk we went
on in Mkhuze. In a small area we found the bones and
skulls of about 10 animals that had been killed in snares
and left again to die.
Mr Mthembu too feels that the situation is under control,
even though he wrote an article for a local paper in
which he said that Mkhuze was the most threatened park
in South Africa.
Mr Mthembu: "Really, there is no way that you
can stop everyone from poaching. It's to do with hunger;
it's to do with unemployment. Bear in mind that the
initial history of the game reserve was 'not suitable
for black people'. Because they were forcibly removed
from the reserve and nobody ever bothered about involving
them in the management of the area."
Devi: "This is KwaNgwenya, one of the four settlements
that surround the Mkhuze National Park. There's no running
water, no electricity and very little employment opportunities
in this community. Some of them poach in order to survive."
Muntu Mabika has lived in this village all his life.
Muntu Mabika (Villager): "The poachers come from
all over here."
Game ranger: "Why do they poach?"
Muntu: "It's because they are hungry, there is
no food, there is no
rain. They don't have meat; the cattle are dying. They
then go poaching. it's better if I steal from the government."
Muntu's parents were forcibly removed from the park
and resettled here when the park was proclaimed in 1912.
His nephew Norman started poaching at the age of 13
to try and help feed his family.
Norman Mabika (Ex-poacher): "You might maybe poach
three times a day; or you go out there to poach and
end up getting nothing. Then you have got to go back
again.
Devi: "Did it ever cross your mind that what you
were doing was wrong?"
Norman: "I knew actually, if they can catch me
while I am doing school and put me in jail. That can
disturb me, and the whole of my future, but I ignored
that. That was not something that changed my mind."
Like Norman, it didn't seem to bother young Senzo either.
He was caught by Anton's anti-poaching team and, while
he is only about 10 years old, he has been poaching
for a while.
Many young boys are used for poaching as they can't
be convicted when caught by authorities.
Game Ranger: "What do you do with meat?"
Senzo (Poacher): "When we catch the animal, we
eat part of the animal and then sell the rest."
Apart from the poachers selling the meat to their neighbours,
it is also sold at traditional drinking sites, Spazas
and pension days - like this one at KwaNgwenya.
Devi: "Is the meat cheap?
Norman: "Yes it's cheap."
Devi: "Much cheaper?"
Norman: "Much, much cheaper."
Devi: "How much a kilogram?"
Norman: "I'll say maybe a piece like this five
rand or so, and if you
see the people are leaving, then you can even decrease
the amount you've been charging."
Devi: "Each of the animals in the park has a monetary
value. If you were to buy game, a reedbuck would cost
you R3 500, a blue wildebeest R2 500. An nyala buck
can cost you R12 000. But the average fine poachers
pay here at the Ubombo Magistrates Court is one thousand
rand.
Ubombo Court hears about eight poaching cases a month,
according to Chief Magistrate Mr Zama Mkwanazi.
Mr Zama Mkwananzi (Chief Magistrate): " 'People
are hungry', that is
what they say when they are asked to give evidence in
mitigation. And they'll say, 'But I'm not employed'."
Devi: "So you give a fine for one hundred rand
when in actual fact the animal was worth much more?"
Mr Zama: "Most cases witnesses will come and testify.
When they are asked to estimate the value of the beast,
or the game killed, they say they don't know. Which
leaves the court in the dark where the value of that
animal is concerned."
But not all poachers are just in it to feed their families.
The value of
this snared blue wildebeest is around R2 500, but all
the poachers took was its tail - presumably because
it could be sold to sangomas.
This is Nongoma, and some of these animal parts fetch
handsome prices at this muti market that's held every
month. You can buy almost any type of animal part here.
There are dried crocodiles, pythons, monkeys and buck
skulls.
If you were to buy that wildebeest tail here, it would
cost you R250; a giraffe skull R50 and for a crocodile
skull R100.
When asked where these animals came from, two of the
vendors told us that they came from the National Parks.
Vendor: "We get them in Zululand in the National
Park."
One of the species that is under threat, due to the
muti trade, is the
vulture.
Anton: "What they do when they set their snare,
then catch enough impala or nyala . they will take what
they need and they will poison the carcasses that are
left."
When the vultures come down to eat, they are killed
almost instantly by
the poison. For the locals, their muti is very powerful
and profitable,
says Beki Nxumalo.
Beki Nxumalo (Anti-poaching field ranger): "What
they want from the
vultures is the brains. If you want to win the Lotto,
put the dried
brains under your pillow. You will have a dream in the
night and the
numbers that will win the Lotto will be revealed to
you in your dream."
At Nongoma, we found a vendor selling slivers of vulture
brain at
exorbitant prices.
Vendor: "When we cut a small piece we start from
R100."
Buyer: "This piece?"
Vendor: "No, that is too much. Just a small piece
for R100."
With the high prices in game parts and the increase
in poaching, KZN
Wildlife was concerned that the subsistence poaching
was turning into a bush meat market. Its report on bush
meat says that there were
indications that most of the buck were killed for commercial
use and
very little for subsistence poaching.
There are indications that the majority of antelope
killed are very
likely for commercial use and only a limited number
of animals are used for subsistence poaching.
Wayne: ""We are also aware that the border
is extremely porous. There's been an influx of foreign
nationals into that part of the world - indeed as far
south as Durban now. And so we were aware - given the
history of the bush meat trade in Africa, particularly
central, and western Africa - that we had to get on
top of this situation."
While they do not condone poaching, the authorities
feel that the animal breeding rate has, in the past,
managed to sustain itself. KZN
Wildlife's lack of clarity on the numbers of animals
they are losing
makes the growing threat of a bush meat industry a very
real
possibility.
Anton: "It feels like you're fighting a war, and
the worst thing about it is, you feel like you're fighting
alone. Because you struggle with
the courts, and when you arrest someone, and the amount
they are fined makes it a very difficult situation.
And sometimes you don't know why you bother at all."
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