The Portfolio Committee on Environmental Affairs welcomes the arrest of suspected rhino poaching ring-leader and nine accomplices on Friday by the Hawks.
These arrests send a clear message to all those syndicates who are involved in killing the rhino for their horn, that their dastardly deeds cannot be tolerated and that we will spare no efforts in ensuring that they are arrested and brought to book. We believe the arrest over the weekend will send a clear signal to others that the crime of killing our rhinos does not pay, instead it will be punished harshly by our laws.
We congratulate our Hawks and other security agencies on the recent arrest of rhino poachers. Our security personnel must always know that we are with them in support of them carrying out their work of protecting our rhino species.
The arrest of these suspected rhino poachers comes after the Committee held public hearings in three provinces (KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the North West) on the killing of the South African rhino population.
The Committee is concerned about the sharp rise in the killing of the South African rhinos in the past few years. The rise in the killing of the rhinos has threatened to reverse the hard-won population increases achieved by conservation authorities during the 20thcentury.
As we celebrate World Rhino Day today, we call upon all South Africans to stand together in order to develop a ‘political community of interest’ around the protection of our rhinos, particularly closer to where the rhinos are being illicitly killed.
Following the Committee’s successful public hearings on sustainable development goals, climate change and the killing of the South African rhino, the Committee has seen a need to conduct a follow-up in local inspection of the actual sites where the rhino killings take place as well as the site where the fence will be erected between South Africa and Mozambique.
The Committee will, in pursuit of the above, visit the Kruger National Park in Mpumalanga this coming Thursday and Friday, 25 to 26 September 2014.
Our visit to the Kruger National Park will give the Committee insight into the various measures that are being undertaken by the authorities to protect our rhino species and other big animals.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairpersons, please contact:
Faith Kwaza, Parliamentary Communication Services
Tel: 021 403 8062
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Email: fkwaza@parliament.gov.za
