Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Vexed question of legal trade in rhino horn
China ‘waiting in the wings’ as red tape, politics quash green light given by local court
SUBMERGING myself in the world of rhino poaching has meant that sometimes I feel like I’ve auditioned for the role of detective in NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service, a US TV series).
A large part of my time is spent figuring out the role-players in the rhino industry, as I like to call it, as well as who does what in combating this complex national priority crime.
I try to make sense of it all by writing an op-ed piece at the end of every year where I share my experiences from the front line. But 2017 was hijacked by a prolonged legal battle involving the supposed silver bullet… or final bullet… depending on who you are talking to in that complicated rhino world: domestic trade in horn.
Whatever one read or heard or watched on rhinos this year had to do with domestic trade.
Very little was mentioned about other aspects of the effort on the ground in mainstream media. And even I am focusing this year’s op-ed on it. Despite all the coverage, it’s very confusing.
One group in the fight believes that it will save our rhinos from extinction in the wild, and the other that it will have the opposite effect and guarantee their slaughter, solidifying their existence only in zoos or on private farms.
I’m sure you love the giant grey beasts as much as I do. This is, after all, our heritage that we are talking about, so if you can stick around, I will try and dissect this for you as easily and as simply as I can.
Like in The Sound of Music, to paint a clearer picture, we have to start at the very beginning:
International trade in rhino horn gets banned in 1977 by Cites (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) in 1977, basically an agreement on paper between governments to ensure that trade in animals and plants does not threaten their survival.
South Africa continues to allow domestic trade after the Cites ban but no rhino horn is allowed to leave its borders.
Asian nationals buy rhino horn in South Africa in the early 2000s and export it illegally out of the country.
In February 2009, the South African government reacts by placing a moratorium on domestic trade in rhino horn in an attempt to stop these fraudulent activities.
Rhino rancher Johan Kruger challenges the moratorium in court in 2012 with the world’s largest private owner, John Hume, joining forces with him in 2015
The farmers win, and in November 2015 the High Court sets aside the moratorium within immediate and retrospective effect (retrospective will influence the syndicate cases that are currently in court, effectively lessening several charges against the accused).
Minister of Environmental Affairs Dr Edna Molewa fights the lifting of the moratorium with an application for leave to appeal, which the High Court dismisses. So she then petitions the Supreme Court of Appeal for leave to appeal but also gets dismissed in May 2016.
She subsequently applies to the Constitutional Court in June 2016 for leave to appeal the decision.
In April 2017, the Concourt dismisses the application for leave to appeal and it is once again legal in South Africa to trade in rhino horn.
A set of draft regulations for the domestic trade in rhino horn is published by the Department of Environmental Affairs for public comment in February 2017.
South Africa’s first legal online rhino horn auction takes place in August 2017.
And this is pretty much where we find ourselves now.
The online auction was a first of its kind, garnering huge attention worldwide, even attracting animal rights activists who hacked the site, disabling it for hours.
There was even speculation among those advocating against trade that the ramp-up in illegal rhino horn seizures at Joburg’s OR Tambo International Airport was due in part to the legalising of domestic trade.
Although the Department of Environmental Affairs had issued draft regulations for domestic trade earlier in the year and had even issued the permit for the online auction, there was now a delay in handing the permit over to the owner of all the horns up for auction; that owner being none other than John Hume, the co-plaintiff who had joined Johan Kruger in the courts to successfully overturn the moratorium.
As Hume told me, they “bluntly refused” to hand the permit over for the online auction, and for him it was back to the courts yet again where his legal team managed to get the permit on the Sunday before the auction was due to start.
In the end, all the delays derailed the online auction, with only a small number of buyers registering and the few horns that were sold are still in limbo, leaving Hume in a fume.
“The past year was a landmark where the Department of Environmental Affairs lost their legal battle to stop the legal trade in rhino horn, but it also proved that they can still interpret, manipulate and frustrate the legal process, ie the permit system, in such a way that it extends and prolongs the murdering of my rhinos.”
I did ask the department for comment and was told the answers to my questions needed sign-off from the Ministry and so, despite phoning and messaging several times as well as sending numerous e-mails, I am still waiting.
This, I have to say, is unusual as the department has always been good at responding to my requests.
Hume’s way of auctioning rhino horn is one way of selling, but it clearly comes with challenges which, I’m told, is why the department delayed, as there is difficulty in determining when ownership transfers.
After taking on the role of guinea pig for other “pro-trade” rhino owners, establishing a “trade desk” is the way forward, according to Pelham Jones, chairperson of the Private Rhino Owner Association (Proa). With this model, private rhino owners will give the organisation their horns through a “trade desk or central selling organisation”.
The horns will be kept at a central storage facility for the owner’s account until a sale has been made which, of course, will need the necessary permits from the Department of Environmental Affairs.
Once the buyer becomes the legal owner, they will assume all costs of keeping the horn secure or transporting the horn (not across the border, just yet).
I’ve interviewed rhino horn users in Asia who desire a steady flow of horn, but domestic trade cannot get legal South African horn to the illicit users in Asia because international trade in rhino horn is still illegal.
And, just to be clear, the government has not indicated it will be opening up its massive stockpiles for domestic trade or joining Proa’s trade desk in any way.
But at the Cites meeting in Bangkok in 2013, it was rumoured that China would be South Africa’s preferred trading partner if international trade were to happen.
And at last year’s Cites Convention, which took place in Sandton, Minister Molewa told me and several journalists trailing her there was a very good chance that South Africa would put forward a proposal for international trade in 2019 at the next Cites meeting.
But for the private rhino owners I have spoken to, they are confident there is a market in domestic trade, telling me they have even been contacted privately by Asian buyers based in South Africa.
Only time will tell if there is an actual legal domestic market for rhino horn.
Jones is adamant that Proa’s trading desk will open on January 22, in turn making it the next guinea pig for the government’s future plans in trade.
So I may no longer be confused, and I hope you aren’t either. But at the end of it all is an animal that is suffering.
Even scientists are saying that the desire to trade illegally in rhino horn is affecting population dynamics, and we now have orphan rehabilitators speaking of posttraumatic stress in the surviving populations.
I hope that at the end of next year, my op-ed will be less about the intertwined rhino politics and more about the future of the species.
● Bonné de Bod is an awardwinning television presenter and film-maker who is passionate about all things rhino. She is currently in edit on a three-year feature documentary on the rhino poaching crisis called STROOP
( Poached). Due for release in 2018, the groundbreaking film is expected to unravel the complex intricacies of the rhino issue to audiences in South Africa and around the world.