Activist takes fight for rhino to the courts — the new frontline
Crooked justice system officials are getting ’blacklisted’
CRUSADER: Jamie Joseph is fighting to save rhinos by taking on corruption JAMIE Joseph is on a crusade to fight rhino poaching.
The Durban-born environmental activist has spent countless nights in game reserves across South Africa, networking with rangers and community leaders who feed her intelligence on poaching.
She has used her blog to highlight how alleged corruption within the justice system is fuelling poaching.
She has met with public protector Thuli Madonsela and has tried to meet with Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa, but a scheduled meeting was cancelled.
Joseph wanted to hand over what she calls a “Blood Rhino Blacklist” — a dossier of evidence she has collected that calls out magistrates, officials, police officers and attorneys for being lenient or corrupt in dealing with poaching.
Corruption is one reason why KwaZulu-Natal is hit the most by rhino poachers after Kruger National Park. The province’s courts were suspiciously lenient, she said.
“You have to ask yourself how, in the decade we have been fighting the war on rhino poaching, a kingpin has never gone to jail,” she said this week.
While poaching foot soldiers are arrested and jailed, syndicate bosses seldom see the inside of a courtroom.
This is why Joseph has set her sights on Dumisani Gwala, one of three men on trial in the Ngwelezane Magistrate’s Court near Empangeni.
“Gwala is the spider in the web. Police officers, defence attorneys, magistrates are among the people directly linked to Gwala’s syndicate. Corruption in the justice system is fuelling the rhino crisis,” said Joseph.
Gwala, Dimizulu Mageba and Aubrey Dlamini are facing a combined 10 charges, most relating to the illegal purchase and possession of rhino horn and resisting arrest.
The trio were arrested on December 18 2014 after a three-week sting that involved an undercover cop selling five white rhino horns to Gwala. He allegedly tried to take a firearm off one of the arresting officers and to reverse a vehicle over another. In the process he was shot in the leg.
Gwala and Mageba are on bail, while Dlamini remains in custody.
At the time of the arrests, a private antipoaching security firm described the syndicate as the biggest in the province, with about 80% of all poached horns going through its network.
According to the latest government statistics, 51 of the 363 rhino poached between January and April this year were killed in KwaZulu-Natal; 232 were poached in Kruger.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesman Musa Mntambo said on Friday that poaching had continued this week. “On Tuesday we were standing at 107 [poached in 2016] and today we are at 115, which means we lost eight rhinos this week,” he said.
Ezemvelo CEO David Mabunda said these incidents undermined recent successes, with 91 poachers arrested so far this year, compared to 49 last year.
Joseph has been to all Gwala’s court cases this year, including on Monday in Ngwelezane when the trial was due to begin. But the last-minute withdrawal of Mageba’s and Dlamini’s lawyer saw the case postponed to October 21.
The ongoing delay is partly why Joseph took her blacklist to Madonsela’s office.
“I met with the public protector on April 10 and presented my evidence to her. She thanked me and said she would open a preliminary investigation into how corruption was enabling rhino poaching,” said Joseph.
Madonsela’s office confirmed the probe and sent a representative to court for Monday’s hearing.
“The public protector is in the early stages of a preliminary investigation. The matter also cuts across justice system agencies that have their own
Police officers, defence attorneys, magistrates are among the people directly linked to Gwala’s syndicate
watchdogs. We are finding out what has been done,” said spokeswoman Kgalalelo Masibi.
In 2014-15, about R440-million was spent by the government on antipoaching campaigns, but the number of rhinos poached decreased only marginally, from 1 215 to 1 175 in the last year.
Joseph said this showed the fight was being fought on the wrong front.
“We can have all the weapons in the world and all the antipoaching dogs and all the helicopters, but if we lose the war on corruption we lose the war on everything.
“The good news is that we haven’t really tried to deal with this; the government hasn’t really tried to expose and eradicate the corruption. If we start to do this, we will save a lot of rhinos,” said Joseph.
Approached at court, Gwala’s new lawyer — whom he appointed three weeks ago — declined to comment.