Following the discovery of two mutilated rhino corpses in Kruger National Park, South Africa, the total number of rhinos killed in the country’s National Parks this year stands just 5 less than in the whole of 2009.

The population of white rhinos on the African continent is currently estimated at around 20 000. The black rhino remains critically endangered with a total population in the region of only 4 000. What is most worrying about the figure of 115 rhinos having been killed so far this year is that authorities have finally paid heed to conservationists’ warnings and rolled out more monitoring and law enforcement operations.

Earlier this year, the South African authorities believed they had made a crucial breakthrough when three relatively low-level syndicate members were convicted of wildlife crimes earlier this year. The extent of the syndicate’s activity and influence is gradually being unravelled, but they are just one of many groups that are undertaking the routine slaughtering of South Africa’s wildlife.

Now the anti-poaching authorities are eyeing what they believe is an even more extensive syndicate, allegedly headed up by the son of a prominent South African mining magnate. Identified alleged associates include two well-known game veterinarians, who are suspected of providing dart guns and supplying controlled tranquilliser drugs for use on poaching expeditions.
“You knock one group of poachers out and the next team are there to take over from them,” Rusty Hustler, head of counter-poaching in the North West said this week.

The Sunday Independent’s anti-poaching sources estimate the new syndicate could be responsible for as much as 70 percent of current rhino poaching in South Africa.

Characteristically the syndicate uses military-issue R4 rifles in killing the animals, but according to Hustler, the dart guns are used in order to incapacitate the animals before the horn is removed, since horn taken from a live rhino fetches a higher price on far Eastern markets. Only after the horn has been cut off is the hapless animal finally dispatched.

In common with the alleged new syndicate, the syndicate currently being taken through the courts is mainly made up of white farmers, many with a background in the apartheid-era security forces.

Having plea-bargained in exchange for testimony against syndicate kingpins, three low-level members of the earlier syndicate were convicted in 2007 – Kalahari farmers, Gideon van Deventer and his older brother Nic, sentenced to 10 and five years imprisonment respectively, though part of both sentences was suspended in view of their turning state witness.

Their accomplice Pieter Swart was given a fine of R50 000 or 12 months in prison.

Now the saga is set to unfold in further prosecutions in October. The three convicts will testify against six alleged syndicate kingpins, charged with racketeering, money laundering, contravention of provincial conservation Acts, and theft, among other offences. Charges have also been brought in terms of civil aviation legislation in connection with a light aircraft allegedly used to spot rhinos for poaching in nature reserves.

The accused in the October trial include two safari operators, Clayton Fletcher of Sandhurst Safaris and Gert Saaiman of Saaiman Hunting Safaris, game farmer and lion breeder, Pieter Swart, along with Gauteng private investigator Johan le Grange, as well as Andre, younger brother of the convicted Van Deventers.
“Poaching has become even worse than it was in the late 1990s and we will have to take extreme measures to fight this problem at the very level that the syndicates operate,” said one investigator, who works undercover in the poaching environment.

He said it was particularly disturbing that the majority of identified South African kingpins in the international smuggling rings were respected local figures with conservationist profiles.

It seems that at as quickly as authorities and conservationists can work to improve their countermeasures against poachers and smugglers, the illegal syndicates are working even quicker to find new ways to continue profiting from killing animals.