Sipho Khumalo
THE KwaZulu-Natal government is upping the ante against rhino poaching with a war chest of R47 million given by the provincial treasury to Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife to intensify its fight in the bloody battle.
Ezemvelo chief executive officer Bandile Mkhize outlined the agency’s plan for halting poaching to the joint meeting of the standing committee on public accounts (Scopa) and finance portfolio committee in Pietermaritzburg yesterday.
He said the money would be made available over two years.
In the first year, Ezemvelo would use R28m and R19m in the second.
“We are very grateful to the Treasury for this allocation as we need funds for proper equipment to fight this war,” said Mkhize.
He said the funds came at a time when poachers were intensifying their attacks, with eight rhinos already killed this year in the province and 60 lost nationally.
Last year 66 rhinos were killed in KwaZulu-Natal and 658 nationally.
A summary of planned interventions included the purchase of 31 vehicles to replace the ageing fleet in rhino reserves and to enable vehicles temporarily re-assigned from non-rhino reserves to return to normal operations.
The plan also placed a premium on information and intelligence gathering.
Mkhize said without this critical information and intelligence, the fight against poaching would not achieve any results.
A fund had been created to extend the services of an information gathering company as well as to reward informers.
A total of R600 000 has been set aside to pay informers.
Mkhize said the provision would be sufficient to hire two helicopters to assist with immediate responses to poaching incidents.
“In addition, there will be an evaluation on the feasibility of a future helicopter purchase,” he said.
The agency was also setting up a specialised anti-poaching response unit with trained personnel to beef up staffing at poaching hot spots.
This unit would be immediately supplemented through the deployment of additional field units.
Mkhize said security companies would be engaged to patrol road corridors within protected areas identified as “high risk” through the risk assessment plan.
Other planned interventions included horse patrols and the purchase of long-range surveillance cameras as well as 60 high-calibre firearms for field rangers.
The agency has also engaged community ambassadors to drive an anti-poaching awareness campaign.
“We have so far engaged a total of 100 ambassadors at a cost of R2 000 per month. We will push this to 500 in the next financial year and spread them to other reserves.
“We hope that the results will be there for everyone to see,” said Mkhize.
He said some of these measures had already been implemented and expressed confidence that the impact would be felt by the end of March.
