Ester Mbathera
Forty-two white rhinos purchased from Kifaru Luxury Lodge and Bush Camp near Outjo departed from Namibia on Tuesday afternoon aboard a Boeing 747.
The rhinos will be airlifted from Hosea Kutako International Airport to Texas, USA.
The export of the rhinos comes barely two weeks after 63 giraffes and an unknown number of camels were also sold to foreign nationals.
The rhinos were sold by Jaco Muller from Kifaru Luxury Lodge and Bush Camp, who confirmed the sale to Kosmos 94.1 News.
“The animals were bought from me by a wildlife trader who had an American agent, and they have been sold to three different people. I don’t have any idea who the end clients are. The amounts mentioned in the media reports are the same that we received from the trader. In Namibian, anyone can go see the auction prices, and those prices mentioned by the government are not close to that amount,” said Muller.
Contrary to earlier reports, the Windhoek Observer was informed that the rhinos left the country on Tuesday afternoon.
Many citizens took to social media, questioning the ownership of the rhino and the custodians of the country’s natural resources.
“The state is supposed to be the sole custodian of all our natural resources, including wild animals; this nonsense of private individuals owning our natural resources is absolutely ridiculous. That’s why we have high inequalities because our resources are just in the hands of a few,” said Michael Amushelelo.
Freedom Angula has accused the government of “selling anything at night.”
The Swapo government can sell anything at night. They sold the rhinos to Americans, 5 Uranium Mines to Chinese, Oil and Gas to Arabians, Green Hydrogen to the Germans, and Fisheries and Aquatics to Palestinians. Now they are selling portraits to themselves; perhaps next they will be selling Namibians or regions, especially Ohangwena,” said Angula.
“There are no direct flights from Namibia to the USA, but when it comes to stealing and corruption, anything is possible. The white rhino is an African species and could never be owned or let alone be sold, Namibian Presidency very dom very dom, or you guys were not aware as well,” said Hatuikulipi Shafewange Benjamin.
The Ministry of Environment, Tourism, and Forestry has not issued a formal statement on the subject.
The ministry’s spokesperson, Romeo Muyunda on Monday told some media houses that the transaction involving the privately owned rhinos is completely legal.
“These are privately owned animals. They are on a private estate and the person decided to sell the rhinos,” Muyunda said.
Namibia has several white rhino breeders, with 120 rhinos bred from imported stock.
It’s not clear if the government will also export black rhinos in the near future.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) lists white rhinos under Appendix I, which prohibits international trade in the species and its parts.
However, due to population growth, CITES approved the move of Namibian white rhinos from Appendix I to Appendix II in 2022.
At the time, the regulation only applied to the sale of live animals, which had to stay within the natural and historical range of the southern and northern subspecies of white rhinos in Africa.
“This decision will incentivise rhino conservation in Namibia, a country which has been successful in protecting its rhino populations and creating multi-agency law enforcement teams to address the illegal trafficking of rhino horn. It also makes more rhinos available for range expansion, which is a proven conservation tool for the recovery of both white and black rhino numbers across the continent,” said the World Wildlife Fund at the time.
