The evacuation of hundreds of rhinos from the Kruger National Park has received cabinet support - even as the national parks board continues to insist there are no such plans.
Minister of Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa is expected to announce on Tuesday the removal of rhinos from the Kruger, taking them out of the poachers' firing line.
Yesterday, however, SANParks spokesman Isaac Phaahla said there was "no cabinet approval".
Asked whether there had been a SANParks board proposal to Molewa for the removal of rhinos , Phaahla said, "No."
Nevertheless, a Department of Environmental Affairs statement carries the announcement of the cabinet "approving the recommended strategic interventions to secure the rhino population". One of the interventions is the removal of rhinos from the park.
A Sunday Times report in July that broke the news of the rhino removal was denied at the time by SANParks, with the chairman, Kuseni Dlamini, calling it "grossly misleading".
Of the rhinos to be moved, 260 will be sold to private buyers and another 250 taken to a safe location.
The decision to move the animals comes against a background of increased poaching of rhinos in the Kruger. The Sunday Times has established that in July the Kruger Park lost 59 rhinos and another seven in the first five days of August.
A report to the SANParks board on March 26 said there had been an average escalation of 70% a year in rhino poaching. This added urgency to the decision to move some of the rhinos to ensure that the species did not become extinct. The report said that more anti-poaching efforts would not be enough to save the rhinos.
It said "most concerning was that recorded birth rates equalled [rhino] death rates". It listed three elements to manage the threat against the animals:
To create an intensive protection zone in the Kruger;
To reduce the demand for rhino horn; and
To provide horn for the market. This was vigorously advocated by private rhino owners, and now also by the state.
The report also detailed plans to set up rhino sanctuaries by removing rhinos from high density areas in the Kruger to stimulate their birth rate.
This comes as a group of concerned citizens, a Cape Town aviation company and the DA called for an investigation into SANParks's anti-poaching strategies, or offered help.
The public protector, Thuli Madonsela, was asked by a Johannesburg attorney, Christopher Bean, to investigate SANParks and the Department of Environmental Affairs for "maladministration in the combating of rhino poaching in the Kruger".
Bean said in his letter that it was urgent that Madonsela investigate SANParks and the department because both entities were in favour of selling South Africa's rhino horn stockpile, amounting to 20 tons and worth about R10-billion.
Bean said such a sale would conflict "with their fiduciary and constitutional obligation" to preserve rhinos.
Cape Town aviation firm Advanced Aviation Logistics has offered SANParks seven heavy-duty Russian helicopters - capable of moving three to four rhinos a day - to help with the evacuation of rhinos.
DA environment spokeswoman Terri Stander said the party would lodge a complaint with the public protector asking for an investigation into the failings behind rhino conservation.
joubertp@sundaytimes.co.za
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
