Speech by Terri Stander MP-RHINO POACHING

[RogerFraser]

RHINO POACHING IS SYMPTOMATIC OF A FAILING ANC GOVERNMENT
Speech by DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Environmental Affairs Portfolio Committee, Terri Stander MP
After 21 years our democracy is led by a broken man and crippled by a perpetual system of insiders and outsiders. The Western border along the Kruger National Park is a perfect depiction of this inequality.
These poor communities are suppressed by poor service delivery, stifled by the lack of quality education or meaningful employment and subjected to crime; or turn to crimes like poaching because they haven’t had the freedom, fairness or opportunity to better their lives.
The Ministry of Home Affairs has failed to implement immigration controls that prevent the influx of undocumented foreign nationals along the South Western border of the Kruger National Park where the majority of poaching incidents now originate.
The Ministry of Defence and Police have failed to secure South Africa’s borders, or so much as a cross-border hot pursuit agreement, to foil the daily armed insurgences on the sovereignty of our state and butchering of our natural heritage.
The South African Revenue Service has failed to adequately implement customs controls at points of entry permitting the free trafficking of illegal wildlife and plant specimens abroad.
The State Security Agency has failed to gather and coordinate actionable intelligence to disrupt organised crime syndicates that manipulate the supply and demand of illegal flora and fauna.
The Ministry of Justice has failed to legislate strict penalties or capacitate their courts with sufficient skilled Magistrates to deter environmental crime.
The Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Fisheries has failed to develop norms and standards for threatened and protected species while they play ping pong with the Department of Environmental Affairs deflecting their responsibility.
The Ministry of Economic Development has failed to initiate employment opportunities in poor communities that would provide an alternative to poaching activities.
The Ministry of Environmental Affairs has failed to adequately include adjacent communities in conservation through beneficiation schemes and increased access to the very Parks that belong to them. Further, it has failed to focus on essential international demand reduction campaigns – the ultimate solution to the poaching crisis.
Rhino are not more important than people, nor is rhino poaching more important than critical issues of poor service delivery, poor education, unemployment, corruption or crime.
It is the failure of this ANC Government to uphold the rule of law and ensure good governance that means our people risk their lives on a daily basis: either to protect our natural heritage, or to pilfer it from the rest of us.
Minister Molewa, the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species will not lift the ban on trade in rhino horn next year in March. Your rhino trade committee is perpetuating debate that is polarising our country, dividing our efforts and wasting crucial time to save this iconic species.
It is shameful that the ANC is endorsing an illegal activity as a quick win for its own Government’s failures.
We need to stop feeding off ANC lip service and window dressing.
Botswana, Swaziland and other countries all successfully protect their rhino because they have the political will. Apho kukho injongo, kukho indlela. Find the will and South Africans will always find a way.

[Flutterby]

Well said Ms Stander!

[Lisbeth]

The political will is something sadly missing in SA under the present government......in almost all fields

A pity that Terri Stander is not in the chair of Mrs. Molewa

[Richprins]

All entirely true, especially the part about poachers concentrating on the Western Boundary of Kruger lately! That chops and changes according to ground-level informants. But still mostly Mozambiquans who rule the roost.

Disagree about the legalising trade part, myself, but that's another thread!