THE horns of the two rhinos shot at Dwesa this month have been exported to Vietnam to the hunters who shot them, the outfitter involved in the controversial hunt said yesterday.

Speaking from his base in Bloemfontein, Willem Botha, of African Scent Safaris, said his two Vietnamese clients could now do “anything” with the horns.

“They can put them on the wall or sell them or make them into dagger handles – whatever they want.”

The international Save the Rhino Foundation says the biggest threat to the surviving five species of rhino in Africa and Asia is poaching for their horns to make into traditional Oriental medicine. It is also used for the handles of ceremonial daggers.

Last year, a diplomat at the Vietnamese embassy in Pretoria was filmed receiving a rhino horn from a known smuggler.

Contacted about the horn issue two weeks ago, Dr Dave Balfour, a senior official at the Eastern Cape Parks Board which manages Dwesa, said the current international moratorium on rhino horn trade did not prevent officially permitted hunts taking place – “but the hunters will not be able to sell these horns”.

Eastern Cape Parks Board head Nokulunga Maswana confirmed yesterday that the outfitter had made a successful bid to hunt six rhinos. After this group had been hunted, the matter would be put on hold to allow for further consideration of management options.

Asked how he had won the right to hunt in the Wild Coast reserve, Botha said the offer had been put out on open tender. He had bid for it and his bid had been chosen. “I have heard allegations that there was some sort of bribery. It‘s total nonsense.”

Asked about the allegation of a charge pending against one of his clients, he said he did not know about it and “it is not my work to check that”.

“That is the job of the authorities when they receive the application and decide whether to issue the permit.”

Asked whether it was not unusual to get hunting clients from a poor country like Vietnam, he said his clients came from all over the world, but he had never before had clients from Vietnam.
Efforts were made to contact the Eastern Cape Environment Department to check on the issuing of the permits, but a spokesman could not be reached for comment.

Botha said he was frustrated and angry about the attention the Dwesa hunt had received,
“Just recently we had a whole lot of rhino poaching in the Kruger Park and in the Eastern Cape. Those animals were taken out of the system and nobody benefited.

“The authorities and the public and the media, who are focusing on Dwesa, should focus on how to stop poaching, not worrying about a legal hunt.”

Clarifying the permit and how the hunt had proceeded, he said six rhino had been allocated to him to shoot. The first two animals were shot by the two Vietnamese clients “about three weeks ago”. He has until the end of the Eastern Cape hunting season in September to hunt the other four. Other clients from the US would be brought in to shoot them.

No more rhinos had been shot this week at Dwesa despite the flurry of media interest, he said.
Botha said that although it was possible that a third had been injured and that blood had been spotted on one animal, the party had tracked it for some time and had not come upon its carcass. Some of the bulls had been seen fighting. It was possible the injury was from this.
The two rhinos killed had been cut up in the forest where they fell, he said. “That was the only way to get the meat out of there. That‘s why capture or darting or a ‘green hunt‘ would not have been possible.

“Because of poaching in the past, especially by gangs with dogs, as soon as these rhinos get scared they run into the deep forest. You could not get them out of there alive.”

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