Gun drills and discipline at S. Africa anti-poaching school
VAALWATER, South Africa: Gripping a semi- automatic rif le in his muscular right hand, antipoaching instructor Simon Rood berates his students for not taking their gun lessons seriously.
“The problem with you is you don’t want to grasp what we’re trying to teach you,” says Rood, an imposing man with a buzz cut and a Glock pistol on his belt.
“This thing is like your wife, you will treat it with respect,” he stresses. “If you do not treat a firearm with respect, you can’t be a ranger.”
The students, a group of 19 dressed in forest- green fatigues with black military boots, nod their heads to show they understand.
Rood is one of a handful of entrepreneurs in South Africa specialising in producing armed anti-poaching rangers who patrol public and private nature reserves protecting rhinos.
“Unfortunately it’s the kind of business where you have to fight fire with fire,” said the 50-yearold owner of Nkwe Wildlife and Security Services.
“We’ve got armed ‘ terrorists’ coming through our border with weapons to shoot our national heritage.”
According to the South African government, a record 1,215 rhinos were poached in the country last year, fuelled by the booming demand in East Asia for their horns which have supposed medicinal qualities. Estimates vary but some say rhino horn can fetch up to 65,000 on the Asian black market.
Supported by international crimesyndicates,poachers—many of them based in neighbouring Mozambique — are killing rhinos with increasingly sophisticated weapons and tactics.
“If you look at Kruger National Park — South Africa’s largest wilderness area — they’re coming across poachers carrying heavy calibre rif les or fully automatic military weapons,” said Kevin Bewick, the Durban-based head of the Anti-Poaching Intelligence Group of Southern Africa, a nonprofit organisation.
“The danger is very real.” — AFP