Calls for the legalisation of rhino horn trade are continuing to gain traction, with the Private Rhino Owners Association saying over and above saving animals’ lives, it could give the South African economy an R80 billion boost.
The authorities recently discovered 26 unreported rhino carcasses at a game farm in Limpopo, leading to the arrest of a US national.
This against the backdrop of almost 10,000 rhinos having been lost to poaching in South Africa over the last 16 years.
Pelham Jones is the chairperson of the Private Rhino Owners Association.
Speaking to 702’s Ray White on Friday, he said while they initially adopted a neutral stance on legalizing the trade, they’ve since changed their position.
“The most important outcome is we get to save rhinos’ lives. The second aspect is that through this, instead of the financial benefit going to the criminals, that revenue comes back to conservation.”
He further pointed to community upliftment and job creation and said we don’t have to just export raw rhino horns but can also manufacture the end product here too.
“When one starts to do these kinds of calculations, bearing in mind we’re coming into the market at a wholesale tariff, not a retail tariff, we estimate about R80 billion’s worth of revenue can flow back to South Africa, of which about R50 billion would go to the government in the form of taxes and sale of own assets and the balance would come to private reserves.”
-EWN
In other news – RIP: Actress Leleti Khumalo pays tribute to her ex-husband Mbongeni Ngema
Mzansi writer, lyricist, composer, director, choreographer, and theatre producer, Mbongeni Ngema’s ex-wife Leleti Khumalo has shared a tribute to the late veteran playwright.
Ngema died shortly after being attended by doctors at Adelaide and OR Tambo Memorial Hospital in Mbizana in the Eastern Cape on Wednesday after following a car crash involving a truck on the R61. Khumalo shared an official tribute statement on her social media platforms sending her condolences to the Ngema family. Read More
