South Africa: Are rhino horns in possession of the state fuelling the blackmarket?

South Africa: Around 51 rhino horns were reported stolen from the North West Parks Board’s main vault on Monday. This operation could have been conducted without sophisticated knowledge and involvement of insiders.

This is not the first time vast quantities of rhino horn have been stolen from what are supposed to be well-guarded and secure government-run premises.

In 2014 thieves cut through steel safes at the Mpumalanga tourism and parks agency (MTPA) in Nelspruit, taking up to 40 horns, in what was back then the country’s biggest theft to date.

Why continue to stockpile rhino horn when its sale is internationally banned?

Referring to this image displayed, a 250kg seizure in China in 2019, Saving the Wild has tried for many years to get an answer on the BIGGEST BUST OF RHINO HORN EVER, but members of the South African police refuse to admit who the horns belong to.

Even questions that were sent through Parliament last year were blocked with the excuse “still investigating” FIVE YEARS LATER – which is a unbelievable because a certain Police Colonel already admitted to Saving the Wild back in 2020 that he knows who the horns belong to through DNA testing.

From the way the horns are cut in this image, these are not poached rhinos. Do they come from the state vault and natural fatalities? Or do they come from the private sector, and if so, why is the state protecting them?

What is clear is that horns in possession of the state go on to flood the blackmarket in Asia. South Africa does not have a rhino crisis. South Africa has a corruption crisis.

Jamie Joseph, Saving the Wild Director 

#BloodRhinoBlacklist