Five locals from different backgrounds are working together on a multimedia documentary project – the Cliptivists – to examine the complex questions behind rhino poaching.
Five locals from different backgrounds are working together on a multimedia documentary project – the Cliptivists – to examine the complex questions behind rhino poaching.
This is the second of five short profiles introducing the Cliptivists to Grocott's readers:
Cliptivist No. 2: Xola Mali
"Before I joined the Cliptivists, I asked, 'Why should I care? I don’t own even one rhino – I don't know how this affects my life.' Later, after I joined, I asked myself, 'How did the game reserves come to be?'
Farm owners decided to sell land.
People had lived there – they lost jobs, homes, ancestral graves. They were forced to roam around town looking for jobs. The way people were removed was the same way they were removed when they were colonised. Some people in Salem had to make way for Kariega Game Reserve.
There was no benefit for Salem.
There was more injustice for them. More was taken away from them. Nobody wants to talk about that. The only question that is being explored is why communities are not involved – why people do not care.
We talk about introducing educational initiatives into the townships so that people aren’t lured into poaching rhino horn for money.
But, when you dig deeper you understand why people do not care, why a person will take R3000 to shoot a rhino.
A person lost so much to make way for that reserve. People do get involved because of poverty and injustice. So, a holistic approach is needed.
People do not have the opportunity to interact with these animals. They can’t afford to go to these game reserves. This has become an elite issue to me.
Yet we expect people to be involved in trying to control and protect rhinos. We haven’t been digging as deeply as we could. This project is open to digging." Follow the Cliptivists on their Facebook site: www.facebook.com/cliptivists
Rhinos to be moved from South Africa to Botswana in anti-poaching drive
Up to 100 rhinos will be moved from South Africa across the border to Botswana's remote wilderness in an attempt to put them beyond the reach of rampant poaching, conservationists said on Wednesday.
The mass relocation comes after a record 1,004 rhinos were killed in South Africa last year and the failure of every measure tried so far to curtail the scourge, which is fuelled by demand for horn in Asia. The crisis was under discussion at a global summit in London on Thursday aimed at beating back the illegal wildlife trade.
