Where his cut keeps poacher ‘boss’ in Glenfiddich
JUSTICE “Nyimpini” Ngovene is a rhino poacher living in Massingir, a small Mozambican village a stone’s throw from the Kruger National Park.
At 11am he arrives holding a glass tumbler filled to the brim with single malt Glenfiddich whisky. He drives a spotless Toyota Prado and smiles with the ease and confidence of a man of means. He boasts that he is the “second-richest man” hereabouts.
He calls himself a “boss”, referring to his role in poaching, and suggests that “catching a boss like him” will help to stop rhino poaching.
A fresh wound above his elbow shows eight stitches.
“I’m drinking this time of morning because the whisky takes the pain away,” said Ngovene. He laughed while explaining that he was recently in a car accident “in his other car in the park”.
He admitted to “being involved with rhino horn”, to “buying horn” and that he “used to be a shooter for many years”, but said he did not “go and get it anymore”.
“I grew up here. We’re used to walking through the park to South Africa many times to look for work,” he said.
“I didn’t find work . . . I came back and a man told me that I don’t need a job. I need to find the rhino because if I have the horn then I can make money . . . very good money.”
Ngovene said “all the money in Massingir is rhino money”.
“There are many people here who are bosses. The buyers aren’t here — they sit in Maputo. The middle men — the bosses — are here. The boss is the man sending the shooter into the park and taking the horn when they come out.”
He reckoned there were about “20 bosses in Massingir”.
Ngovene said Mozambicans were angry because “the South Africans are shooting and killing lots of Mozambicans in the park”.
“There is no work in Mozambique. People go to South Africa and shoot the rhinos because they want money because there are no jobs. Rhinos are a way of doing a job. The way to stop the poaching is not to kill the Mozambicans. You must catch the bosses buying the horn and [those] taking it on the boats [to China] . . . Too many people are dying in the park now.”
Ngovene said rhino horns were increasing in price because poaching was becoming more dangerous.
“The boss takes the value of 1kg of horn [R150 000] for himself.” The rest of the horn’s value, depending on its weight, is paid out evenly between the men entering the Kruger.
He said most of the men com-
One is the shooter, one carries water and the axe to cut the horn
ing back with horns bought cars with their money, “but some build a house and some just drink and party away all the money”.
Ngovene is building a 26-bedroom lodge with a rooftop swimming pool, chalets at the back and a restaurant.
He said he was offered a horn in February this year by “a ranger” working for the Kruger. “He used to be a mechanic, but now he is a ranger. He came through Mampai [a small town in Mozambique near the Limpopo Transfrontier Park]. He had a horn. He offered me the horn, saying he is selling.
“South Africans are coming to Mozambique saying they need buyers for the horns . . . I think that 70% of the horns are sold by Mozambicans, but the rest are South Africans.”
Ngovene said he did not buy the horn from the ranger, “but he helped the man to get a buyer”.
He said people left Massingir to “go into the park when the moon is good”.
“We don’t go in any day. We wait for the full moon. Now, [he is speaking one week before full moon] it’s a good time to go into the park . . . A team is three people. The one is the shooter, the one carries the food and the other one carries the water and the axe to cut the horn.”
Ngovene said groups usually entered the park for between three and seven days.
“You go in and then you have to search for the rhino . . . you search and search. But you can’t stay for longer than a week.”
He said if a boss sent in a team and the men did not come back because they had been arrested or killed, he had to pay the family.
“It depends on the boss. Some bosses run away, but others pay the family of the ones who don’t come back,” he said.
Towards the end of the interview, he said “it’s wrong” to kill rhinos.
“The children today will not see the rhino because we will finish the rhino. They’ll only see the picture of the rhino . . . this is very wrong . . . We’re going to finish the rhino — I don’t know how many rhinos are left.”