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Hardly a day goes by without us hearing or reading about rhinos being
killed by poachers for their horns. This slaughter, which is continuing
unabated, will lead to the extinction of rhinos in our lifetime. The
massive national death toll of rhinos as well as the killing of 9 rhinos
on the weekend of World Rhino Day are huge concerns and call for the
fight against rhino poaching to be a priority in KwaZulu-Natal. Poachers
are invading our protected areas and destroying our natural wildlife
heritage. KwaZulu-Natal is currently the province with the second
highest number of poaching related deaths in the country. The statistics
released by the Department of Environmental Affairs reveal that 38
rhinos were killed in 2010, 34 in 2011 and 47 so far in 2012. To make
matters worse, KwaZulu-Natal lags behind in the number of poacher
arrests this year - only 10 arrests have been made whereas Mpumalanga
made 56 and the Kruger National Park 34.

The SMS campaign aiming to end rhino poaching together with other
awareness campaigns are not adequate to curb rhino poaching. More needs
to be done to crack down on rhino poachers. The police can no longer
budge on rhino poaching and rhino related killings need to become high
profile investigations because it is apparent that there are multiple
poaching syndicates operating within the province. The SAPS needs to
undertake full scale investigations so that if corrupt officials within
game parks exist, they can be identified and prosecuted. Ezemvelo needs
to increase helicopter patrols and the number of field rangers
undertaking foot patrols. Ezemvelo also needs to mobilise stakeholders
in order to win the the war against rhino poaching.

One wildlife expert asserted that if poaching increases at the same
rate as it has over the past two years, the species could go into
decline from 2016 and become extinct in the wild by 2050. We urgently
need to find innovative ways of combating poaching.We are the custodians
of our wildlife and we must protect them. It would be more than tragic
if rhinos became extinct on our watch.
The IFP is calling for mobilisation from provincial government on the
whole rhino poaching dilemma. We are very concerned about this
endangered species; soon we will be out of rhinos if nothing is done. I
will personally raise this matter with our provincial speaker, Ms
Neliswa Peggy Nkonyeni. There must be a debate on the issue in order to
get a view from all political heads and provincial executives on what
the course of action is to prevent the extinction of this species. If
financial constraints are constantly the cause of poor security for
rhinos maybe it is time that Ezemvelo’s budget be increased. This is a
national crisis and we cannot just sit back and wait for the unknown -
the sooner we tackle this issue the better. We need to exercise all
possible solutions available and explore any other ventures that could
assist us in fighting rhino poaching.