Fiona Macleod
South African hunters are allegedly smuggling ivory into the country from Zimbabwe, in an attempt to win credits in hunting trophy competitions.
High-ranking members of South Africa’s largest hunting association and one of Zimbabwe’s oldest professional hunting outfits are implicated in the smuggling scam, which allegedly involves the illegal hunting of state-owned elephants and laundering export permits for the tusks.
The scam has been exposed as a result of questions raised about a pair of tusks entered in a trophy competition by an executive committee member at the South African Hunters’ and Game Conservation Association. The member, Frikkie Bouwer, has not produced valid permits for the tusks, and documents show the export stamps on the ivory are registered to a British hunter for an entirely different pair of tusks.
It is illegal to possess ivory without valid permits issued by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), and there are fears the scam could negatively affect South Africa’s attempts to deregulate its trade in ivory. Illegally importing ivory could lead to a fine or 10 years in jail, or both; while possessing tusks without a permit could result in a fine of up to R50 000 or five years in jail, or both.
The Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment has launched an investigation into the scam, and the hunting association says it will hold an internal disciplinary inquiry into the allegations next week.
”We work so hard in promoting the image of hunters and when something like this comes along it takes years to get over it,” says Remmie Mulder, president of the 12 000-member association.
The average South African hunter cannot afford to pay the high prices demanded for elephant hunts. Zimbabwean outfit Rogers, Brothers and Sons has been offering South Africans discounted hunts, charging them about R15 000 to hunt a female elephant that would normally cost in the region of R30 000.
The South African Hunters’ and Game Conservation Association recently opened its annual trophy competition to include tusks from elephant cows, so hunters who cannot afford to pay for bull hunts can also enter.
The Zimbabwean outfit, which is based near Beit Bridge, has been able to afford to offer the South Africans cheaper hunts by allegedly allowing them to shoot ”problem animal control” (PAC) elephants. These are normally animals that have escaped from game reserves and are causing trouble.
If PACs need to be shot in Zimbabwe, this should be done by a professional hunter or the lessee of a hunting concession, not by a hunting client. PACs are considered state property, and their tusks are normally not allowed to be exported.
Both Bouwer and the woman who won the trophy competition he entered in October 1998 shot their elephants at the outfit owned by well-known Zimbabwean hunter Dudley Rogers. The hunt by Louise Potgieter-Boden, a Free State taxidermist, raised controversy in the Afrikaans media at the time when she was fted as the first South African woman to hunt an elephant and concerns were raised about whether she had shot an important matriarch in the herd.
The hunting association’s trophy competition judge, Dr Manie Heunes, says he still has not received Cites permits for either pair of tusks. One of the ground rules of the annual competition is that all trophies must be accompanied by all necessary legal documentation.
Heunes said this week he is waiting for a letter from Rogers guaranteeing that the hunts were legal. Rogers is attending a hunting expo in the United States and could not be contacted. Bouwer, who is no longer on the association’s executive committee but is still an ordinary member, had not responded to inquiries at the time of going to press.
Heunes, who regularly hunts at the Rogers outfit, says it is possible to get a licence from the Zimbabwean authorities for the ivory of PACs. ”The locals take the meat and the hunter can take the tusks, skin, ears, trunk, tail and sheath of the penis. The ears are used to make tables, usually in the shape of Africa,” he says.