Killing for Profit: Exposing the Illegal Rhino Horn Trade (34 page)

Punpitak’s quest is aided by William, a grotesquely bloated South African pimp who lives with his Thai wife, Mau, on a smallholding in Midrand, halfway between Pretoria and Johannesburg. The couple run a group of Thai ‘girls’ who work the club scene.

Many of the ‘girls’ come to South Africa on holiday visas. Weeks after their arrival, fresh paperwork is submitted on their behalf to the Department of Home Affairs in Germiston on Gauteng’s East Rand, requesting a change in ‘permit status’. A copy of a ‘life-partnership agreement’ with a South African man and confirmation of employment as a ‘part-time beauty therapist’ accompanies the forms.

‘The reason for my application is that I met Nicholas F… at a party held for a mutual friend,’ a letter, purportedly written by one of the women, reads. ‘[W]e had an instant connection we became friend [
sic
] and eventually decided to live together. He rents a garden flat from his aunt … I have been offered part-time employment. I wish for my visa to be amended to accompanying spouse and extended for the period that I can remain in South Africa and continue to build a future with my life partner and soul mate.’

The paperwork includes a standardised note from ‘Nicholas F…’ in which he affirms the story, saying he met the young woman at a party after a Thai festival, that they ‘have a lot in common’ and enjoy the ‘same things in life’, and that he promises to ‘care for all her needs’. The same addresses are used in multiple applications and the same wording appears in some of the supporting documents. But despite the glaring similarities, home affairs officials approve the applications.

Mau, William’s wife, quickly becomes an integral part of Punpitak’s scheme, convincing women in her wide circle of Thai ‘friends’ to hand over their passports and go on ‘safari’.

Johnny takes on the role of administrator. He scans photocopies of passports and emails them to Steyl, who submits the permit applications. The process runs like clockwork. ‘You can tell Peter he can come and hunt, as the permits [have come] through,’ Steyl says when he calls back a week or so later.

Data compiled by the South African Department of Environmental Affairs show that the first hunts take place in November 2010. Four hunting permits are issued to Miss Boonta Kongklin, Miss Onsuthee Konsanit, Miss Purichaya Hatthakit and Miss Pecharat Janmeetes respectively. Hunting records released by North West province in response to questions in Parliament indicate that the permits were issued on 12 November 2010. An invoice sent by Steyl on 16 November 2010, and addressed to Mr Vixay Keosavang and Mr Chumlong Lemtongthai of Xaysavang Trading Export-Import in Laos, requests payment of R246 000 ($36 176) for a hunted rhino with horns weighing 4.1 kilograms.

A text message sent on 2 December 2010 from Chumlong to Steyl reads: ‘Transfer usd 36,176.00’. Two weeks after the first hunts, the next batch of
permits is issued. Once again, the hunters are all Thai women: Miss Jirarak Suwannatrai, Miss Onuma Laechankham, Miss Siriporn Phengjoy and Miss Sawitree Suebthangjai.

The department’s records are telling. Between November 2010 and March 2011, at least twenty permits are issued to Thai women to conduct rhino hunts on Steyl’s North West farm. Some, like Siriporn Phengjoy, Boonta Kongklin and Sawitree Suebthangjai, are listed on permits issued in both 2010 and 2011. And in every instance, the professional hunter who accompanies the ‘clients’ is Harry Claassens.

Xaysavang’s ‘hunters’ account for at least thirty of the seventy-three permits issued over an eight-month period in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, where Aurora is situated. Each hunt yields an average of four kilograms of rhino horn – 120 kilograms for thirty hunts. Steyl stands to make R7.2 million. Not bad for Steyl, but even better for Xaysavang, which can expect to make anywhere between $8 million and $10 million on the black market.

Johnny is growing increasingly uncomfortable about the hunts, or so he says. Although Punpitak and the rest of the syndicate initially keep him in the dark about their plans, the pattern quickly becomes apparent.

‘It all looked very strange,’ Johnny says. ‘I’d be told there are rhinos available; the next thing I’d get passports from Peter and I’d send them to Marnus. But it was just girls hunting. If they are hunting trophies, why are the hunters all girls who live here? They probably never see the things again after they’ve hunted.

‘I’m surprised nobody notices. If so many women suddenly start to hunt rhinos, surely somebody will ask questions. Where do they get the money to pay for the hunts? You’re talking about hundreds of thousands of rands. Those poor girls will have to lie on their backs for a long time to make that kind of money. But nothing is asked and nothing is done.’

This is how Johnny remembers it. He is sitting in the back of a white Toyota Land Cruiser, sipping a cold drink and wolfing down a sandwich. It’s hot as
hell and the driver has parked in the shade of a thorn tree. Johnny, as usual, is wearing a pair of Crocs – his favourites. But he doesn’t like walking in the veld with them. ‘There are these long thorns that go right through the rubber into your foot,’ he explains. ‘Anyway, I’m not a hunter.’ Out there somewhere, Marnus Steyl, Harry Claassens and a tracker are looking for a rhino to kill.

A shot rings out. It must be about 300 metres away. Then another and another. One of Marnus’s farmworkers, who is waiting with Johnny and a couple of Thai girls in the Land Cruiser, grins. It must be Marnus doing the shooting, he says. Harry only ever needs one shot. Marnus needs two or three, sometimes more, before the rhino goes down. Earlier, Marnus had asked Johnny if the girls wanted to shoot. They said no. The rifle was too big and they didn’t know how to shoot.

Sometimes before a hunt, Harry takes the girls to go and fire off a couple of shots at paper targets. It is a low-calibre rifle, but at least they can say that they fired a weapon of some kind and there will be powder residue on their hands. Not that anyone’s likely to check.

The regulations governing hunts are clear: the hunter in whose name the permit has been issued must fire the first shot. If they wound the animal, the PH – in this case, Harry – can finish off the kill. But that rarely happens. Harry is often the lone triggerman. The Thai and Vietnamese women have no interest in killing the animals themselves. They aren’t dressed to hunt. They wear sandals and shoes with soles so thin that even the smallest thorn will go straight through them.

There are bursts of static on the radio and a voice that sounds as if it’s emanating from a tin can breaks the silence. The rhino is down. They can come. The Land Cruiser bounces through the bush. Farm labourers have already started clearing the brush away from the dead animal’s head. A rifle is handed to one of the girls. She poses next to the kill, mugging for the camera.

The photographs take an age. First the girl, then Marnus, then Marnus and the girl, then Harry, then Punpitak all take turns to stand over the carcass, grinning inanely. Johnny poses too. He will later claim the scene repulsed him. ‘It’s not a nice feeling to see such a big animal lying dead at your feet.’ Sometimes, the girls even have to fight back tears, he says.

The horns are removed by Steyl’s labourers and sent to a taxidermist to be
mounted as trophies on crude wooden shields. It is a regulatory requirement. The heads and skins are dumped and the meat is sold to a butcher.

North West nature conservation officers are usually on hand to record the hunt. Their role is ostensibly to ensure that the hunting permit-holder and the hunter are one and the same and oversee the measuring and weighing of the horn, the process of microchipping it and the signing of the hunting register. The ‘pink slip’ from the register – a carbon copy of the entry made by the PH – is given to the official for his records.

Usually, they’ll also snap a picture of the ‘hunter’ and her trophy. They are expected to complete a ‘daily activity report’ recording the details of the hunt. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. More often than not their presence is simply to dot the Is, cross the Ts and fill out the paperwork that gives the pseudo-hunt a veneer of legitimacy.

Evidence exists that some of them are not averse to accepting ‘gifts’ from hunting outfitters or hunters. One of the Thais, for instance, apparently bought a cellphone for a North West official. On another occasion, Johnny sees cash being slipped to a nature conservation officer attending one of the hunts. It looks to be about R400 or R500. ‘It looked like it was a normal arrangement,’ Johnny says. He isn’t doing too badly himself. For shuffling a little paperwork and acting as a go-between, he makes R5 000 for every rhino killed. He calls it ‘blood money’.

The stream of passports, CITES export permits and lists of hunters’ names flowing through the syndicate’s email accounts on Yahoo, Hotmail and Google provides a detailed electronic trail of their activities. One of the accounts is
[email protected]
.

Registered on 18 May 2011, it is used to record correspondence between Chai – using the email address
[email protected]
– Steyl and North West conservation officials. Chai has always been something of an Apple acolyte, and many of the mails are sent from his iPad and iPhone. He writes little, probably because of his limited English. But the subject lines of his emails provide an insight into the extent of the operation.

20 May 2011

Email from
[email protected]
to
[email protected]
, copied to
[email protected]
Subject: New passport for shooting

23 May 2011

Email from
[email protected]
to
[email protected]
, copied to
[email protected]
Subject: 5 Passport for shooting

23 May 2011

Email from
[email protected]
to
[email protected]
, copied to
[email protected]
Subject: 1 2 Passport for shooting

26 May 2011

Email from
[email protected]
to
[email protected]
, copied to
[email protected]
Subject: 8 passport for shooting

26 May 2011

Email from
[email protected]
to
[email protected]
, copied to
[email protected]
Subject: 18 names for shooting wait you confirm we can go.

And so they continue.

Attached to the emails are neatly typed lists of names, addresses, and passport and identity numbers for batches of hunters. Invariably, the headers are the same: ‘Name for shooting rhino farm Steyl Game.’ There are tax invoices too, all issued by Steyl Game in Winburg for amounts ranging from $30 000 to $32 000.

One mail, dated 15 May 2011, is from Johnny to Chai. He’s trying to make amends for the punch-up with Punpitak at the Edenvale house.

I had time to calm down and I worked through things. I am sorry about what happened in the past but things like that happens [
sic
] in all families and friends. I leave things in the past and I forget things that happened in the past and I am looking forward. You have always been good [to] me and I feel I need to do everything I can to help you with your business here in South Africa with no heart [
sic
] feelings.

So if you want me to assist you in Permits, passports and help with conservation, I will help you were ever [
sic
] I can like in the old days. I am [a]waiting your response regarding the above and looking forward to work with you as a family.

King Regards

Johnny Olivier.

What Chai doesn’t know is that Johnny is already spilling his guts to O’Sullivan. The email is a ruse to get him back into the fold as an informant. Two days later, O’ Sullivan presents copies of his report, including Johnny’s statement and 222 pages of supporting documentation, to police, the EWT and, most significantly, the South African Revenue Service (SARS).