Will Khama investigate De Graaff?

Lawrence Seretse | Friday December 20, 2013 15:23

 

Khama informed Mmegi that when the Minister of Agriculture, Christiaan de Graaff, made the financial decision to sell what were now his lions, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks (DWNP) assisted by issuing the export permit and finding a facility for the 22 lions.

He said procedurally, they contacted their counterpart ministry in South Africa’s Free State Province as part of due diligence and were assured that the farm to where the lions were destined was free of canned hunting practices.

Khama maintains that he was lied to and says his office will investigate to determine whether the misleading information came from the South African authorities or someone in his ministry was involved.

”What did I tell you I will do if I find out I have been lied to?” he responded when asked what action he would take if he was lied to. “I will find out and the right action will be taken.”

Mmegi is reliably informed that a crack team of investigators has already been dispatched to the Free State town of Boshof to look into Makhulu Game Farm that is owned by Henk J. Vorster.

This is the farm to which De Graaff sold 22 lions after (DWNP) gave him the green light. A week ago Mmegi and Oxpeckers exposed how the 22 lions sold by De Graaff were found at a canned hunting farm in South Africa, waiting to be stripped for cash by trophy hunters.

Khama comes across as one unaware that the farm conducts commercial lion hunts. When found, the big cats are shot before their skeletons are sold to Asian buyers. South African authorities say in 2012, Vorster conducted five canned lion hunts at his facility.

As a major predator breeder, Vorster also supplies other canned hunting farms in his country’s North West Province while some are bred for sale to international zoos.

Mmegi learnt that his farm used to have 300 cats and that there are only 200 or so now, including the 22 imported from De Graaff.

Vorster, who has a spares shop in Hartswater and several other farms in addition to Makhulu, confirmed that he was breeding lions last week.

“I am breeding them, but it is a private business and has nothing to do with you,” he said abruptly.

The environmental management inspector at the Free State’s Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, Werner Böing, had said that he was aware of the 22 lions imported and that Vorster was an “approved predator breeder in our province and his facility is up to standard”.

The difference with Botswana was that trophy hunting was banned while in South Africa it was legal to sell and export the bones of hunted lions, provided the necessary permits were issued, he added.

In the circumstance, it seems Khama’s ministry cannot escape liability for failure to protect this pride of lions in the first place.

Conservationists have accused DWNP of being naïve and lax with its own laws. Its claim of due diligence - which appears to have been neither due nor diligent - declares Botswana a co-conspirator and a merchant in the canned hunting industry, a local conservationist has said.

Even so, Khama claims that his ministry can investigate the case even though the matter is now in a foreign where canned hunting is perfectly legal.

There remains no answer as to what actions will be taken if indeed DWNP investigations meet Mmegi findings that the lions are at a canned hunting facility and ready to be stripped for cash. Significantly, Khama refuses to say whether De Graaff will himself be investigated for his involvement in the lion trade with canned hunting facilities and whether he may have misled the government in which he is a minister. At the time of going to press, he had ignored even smses texted to his mobile phone.

 

Background

Mmegi exposed De Graaff’s involvement in breeding and hunting lions last September. An investigation revealed that in 2005, DWNP captured and ‘donated’ two ‘problem’ Kalahari lions - a male and a female - to De Graaf’s company, Phologolo Botswana Safaris.

The lions were kept at his Tautona Lodge in Ghanzi and had multiplied to 32 by the time he sent the controversial shipment to South Africa in October. As it turns out, this is not the first deal De Graaf has done with commercial game farmers in South Africa. In 2011, he was given permits to export 26 lions to a farm called Smal Deel Unissen, accumulating millions in the transaction.