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The Democratic Alliance welcomes the announcement by KZN Ezemvelo Wildlife and the province’s EDTEA Department that an investigation into allegedly corrupt tender processes involving the R30 million Hluhluwe-Imfolozi Park fencing contract will take place.

We are encouraged that EDTEA MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, has taken heed of the DA’s statements during the recent provincial budget debates and our numerous Motions in the Legislature that have highlighted the rot at Ezemvelo. We sincerely hope that this probe will be followed by others given the rampant failings of this important entity and that this will include an investigation into the total lack of adequate funding for wildlife preservation and critical wildlife care.

Equally importantly, it is now critical that the MEC releases the long-awaited provincial report into corruption within Ezemvelo - directly linked to rhino poaching – and the DA will demand that she do so.

Paid for by KZN’s taxpayers and investigated by the Rhino Crime Combatting Task Team, the report was initially commissioned by current Premier Sihle Zikalala. Quite why this report has never been made public is of concern, and the DA challenges the Premier to explain why it remains unpublished.

Additionally, the DA believes a high-level and independent investigation needs to be conducted into the remaining rhino population within the Isimangaliso St Lucia Wetland Park, and whether Ezemvelo is truly aware of how many rhinos have really been poached in this once pristine conservation region.

The DA has, for some time, been in contact with those who know the real truth of how our natural resources are being decimated – in particular the rhino population. It is a crisis of epic proportions, with the poaching syndicates and those who protect them escaping scot free.

It is increasingly clear that only a high-level impartial investigation – one which leads to prosecutions and jail time - will stem the tide of poaching along with the decimation of our natural heritage.

Issued by The DA