A Swedish tycoon who owns a huge hunting reserve at the heart of one of Southern Africa’s proposed transfrontier parks has been accused of stealing a herd of 12 Tuli elephants.
A neighbouring farmer says the herd, comprising eight adult elephants and four calves, were chased on to the Swede’s reserve with a helicopter. He has laid charges of trespassing and theft against the tycoon’s employees.
The Swedish tycoon, Leif Ramquest, has bought up eight or nine farms near Pont Drift, along the border between the Northern Province and the Tuli Block in Botswana. The Tuli elephants that roam the area became world-famous after 30 young calves were captured in July 1998 and taken to South Africa for training. Wildlife dealer Riccardo Ghiazza still faces charges of cruelty in connection with the incident.
Ramquest’s neighbour, Callie Boshoff, says the high-security fencing on the border between the two countries was damaged during last year’s floods, making it easy for Tuli elephants to cross into South Africa.
On the weekend before New Year, the herd of 12 moved on to Boshoff’s farm. He says shortly after he notified Northern Province conservation officials to chase them back to Botswana, Ramquest’s employees cut his fence and spent about four hours chasing the elephants on to his reserve with a helicopter.
“I have been here for 22 years and this is the first time that nature conservation officials have not either chased the elephants back to Botswana, or shot them themselves for causing damage,” says Boshoff. “Who gave them permission to donate these Tuli elephants to Ramquest? “I am upset about the double standards being applied. If elephants cause damage on agricultural land, we farmers can’t get permits to shoot them; but Ramquest is given permits to shoot elephants on his game reserve.”
Ramquest, who owns about 53 stationery and computer software companies around the world, is known in the area as a great white hunter from the north. He brings clients to his 30 000ha Vhembe Game Reserve on hunting trips, and his employees are believed to use piles of potatoes to lure elephants for hunters.
The claims are an embarrassment for conservation officials at a time when negotiations for the Limpopo-Shashe Transfrontier Conservation Area (TFCA) are at a sensitive stage. The TFCA aims to link public and private reserves in South Africa to the Tuli Block in Botswana and a conservation area called the Tuli Circle in Zimbabwe.
Leon de Jager, the Northern Province conservation official who gave permission for the 12 elephants to be chased on to Ramquest’s reserve, said this week the intention was not to shoot them and he would refuse to give the Swede permits to hunt them. “The reason why they were chased there was to stop them damaging crops,” he says. “We would prefer them to be left alone to find their way back to Botswana, but we have to deal with the complaints from the farmers.”
Ramquest is known to have received at least two permits from Northern Province conservation officials in recent years to shoot Tuli elephants at Vhembe. On the Botswana side of the border, hunting is not allowed. The landowners, who concentrate on conservation and tourism, are infuriated by the shooting of Tuli elephants in South Africa and Zimbabwe hunting is allowed in the Tuli Circle but they have no jurisdiction to stop it once the elephants have moved across the borders.
“Wounded elephants often return to the Botswana side and cause problems with our tourist operations. We have made complaints about this in the past,” says Ted Steyn, chair of the Botswana landowners’ association.
Ramquest’s hunting outfit joins a long list of questionable operations that have been shooting game out of the Tuli Block for decades. These operations on the South African side, usually run by farmers who were given special concessions to settle on the border, were the favourite hunting grounds of numerous National Party politicians during the apartheid era.
One of the goals of the proposed TFCA is to put an end to these shadowy operations, which have decimated wildlife and caused untold ecological damage. Sedia Modise, coordinator of the Limpopo-Shashe TFCA and former director of the Botswana wildlife department, says balancing the land- use options is a sensitive issue.
“Elephants are the keystone species in the area and it is important to work out a common understanding on how to manage them,” he says. Ramquest’s manager, Ed Hannan, said he and his employer were not prepared to discuss Boshoff’s claims. “Everything has been done legally. If you put this in the newspaper, we will follow it up,” he said. Ramquest returned to Sweden on Monday after a two-week visit to Vhembe.
By midweek, some of the elephants had broken out of Vhembe and there were conflicting reports about whether they were heading back to Botswana, or moving deeper into South African territory. Some of the Pont Drift locals were holding thumbs it was Botswana.
The German government is expected to make a ruling on January 26 on applications by NGOs to have four of the Tuli elephants exported by Ghiazza to German zoos returned to South Africa. The NGOs are putting pressure on the government to return the elephants, claiming they were maltreated by Ghiazza and the export permits were issued under false pretences. Ghiazza is due to appear again in the Pretoria High Court on February 19 on charges of cruelty to the 30 young Tuli elephants.