Hunting investigation cover-up - media statement issued by UDM President
(30 March 2005)However since then a month has gone by and matters have reverted back to the earlier problematic state. The hunting moratorium was withdrawn, and hunting is again happening in the private nature reserves that have no fencing separating them from the KNP. Once again animals, which are our national assets since we conserve them in the KNP with taxpayer money, are exposed to private trophy hunters for the financial gain of the private nature reserves. The Minister’s so-called “expert panel” is virtually impossible to contact. Our efforts to extract from the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism relevant details about the investigation have repeatedly been brushed aside and ignored. Thus the terms of reference and dates of public hearings (if any) of the expert panel’s investigation remain a mystery.
We have since been told by independent environmental experts that the panel appointed by the Minister is constituted exclusively of people from the “sustainable utilization” lobby, i.e. people who are in principle supportive of hunting. The SANParks spokesperson has written online that the panel’s job is to investigate “sustainable” hunting within the KNP and adjoining private nature reserves!
From the refusal to provide us with terms of reference, dates of public hearings as well as the comments of the SANParks spokesperson, we can only conclude that the entire affair is now being covered up. It seems that Minister Van Schalkwyk has decided on a predetermined outcome for the investigation, namely to find means of justifying this poaching of national assets, and to keep this matter out of the public domain at all costs. We specifically called for an independent investigation and public hearings; not this biased, secretive and exclusive affair. The UDM will not tolerate such a cover-up; the KNP and its wildlife is a national asset supported by national legislation, taxpayer money and the fees citizens pay to enter it. The public deserves to know the truth about the hunting that affects the KNP and enriches private individuals and institutions. The public deserves to have their say.
