She was speaking at a briefing held to inform the media of the government’s plan to protect South Africa’s rhino population.
According to Molewa, between January and 6 August this year, a total of 631 rhino were killed by poachers, including 408 from the Kruger National Park.
“South Africa is considering a range of rhino strongholds, inclusive of national parks, provincial reserves, communal areas and private reserves,” said Molewa.
“Part of the translocation will include the Southern African Development Community, the SADC area in particular… We have already started discussions with Botswana, we are working with Zambia, we are working with other countries, but more intensely those two in particular.”
According to SA National Parks large mammal ecologist Sam Ferreira, up to 500 rhino need to be removed.
“If you want to give rhino a chance, you remove them from places where they have a high probability of being killed,” he said.
Meanwhile, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega said authorities were actively pursuing poachers across the border into neighbouring Mozambique.
“Yes, we have a hot pursuit agreement, meaning that when… somebody crosses the border, we do have an agreement with Mozambique to follow through,” she said.
“The hot pursuit agreement allows us to follow poachers across our own border.”
