Question NW740 to the Minister of Environmental Affairs

Reply:

There was no need to establish a Committee of Inquiry to investigate the feasibility of a domestic trade in rhino horns, because the Department commissioned a feasibility study in 2011 to determine the viability of legalising the trade in rhino horn within South Africa, as agreed at the Rhino Summit, hosted in October 2010, by the then Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs. The feasibility study was concluded in 2013 and released in 2014. This report recommended a number of measures to be implemented, including, but not limited to, the following:

.The development and maintenance of a secure, national electronic system to monitor rhino related permits and a database for rhino horn stockpiles;

1. Audits of rhino horn stockpiles;
2. Deployment of sniffer dogs at ports of entry and exit to assist officials in detecting wildlife products;
3. Training of officials at ports of entry and exit in methods of detecting wildlife being smuggled, as well as the relevant legislation to assist them with arrests and seizures;
4. The enhancement of enforcement capacity, including the deployment of Environmental Management Inspectors at OR Tambo; and
5. The development of a mechanism/system to control or regulate legal trade in South Africa to be in terms of national legislation.

      6. This report is available on the following Department’s website:

https://www.environment.gov.za/sites/default/files/docs/rhinohorntrade_southafrica_legalisingreport.pdf.

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