Rhinos, Rands, and the Rise of a Wildlife Mafia
South Africa’s wildlife crisis isn’t just about rhinos and poachers. Behind each carcass lies a web of international syndicates, complicit officials, and struggling communities, all feeding a black market that runs from the bushveld to Asia.
Zandré Lambrechts
Jun 5, 2025 - 9:36 AM
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In the heart of South Africa, a silent war is raging - not one of soldiers or gunfire, but of greed, desperation, and extinction. Since 2007, nearly 10,000 rhinos have been lost to poaching, a crisis that has gutted populations and exposed deep cracks in law enforcement, conservation, and justice. As home to the world’s largest rhino population, South Africa plays a critical role in the global fight to save these iconic animals.
I am Zandre Lambrechts, an anti-poaching ranger who has spent years on the frontline of this battle to protect South Africa’s endangered species. I’ve witnessed firsthand the brutal impact of global poaching syndicates that devastate our rhino, elephant, and pangolin populations, and the tangled web of corruption and poverty that fuels this crisis.
The Battlegrounds
In 2023, 499 rhinos were illegally killed across the country. In 2024, this number dropped to 420 rhinos killed. Recent interventions, including dehorning, have contributed to this reduction in poaching losses.
Rhino poaching in South Africa has long been centered in Kruger National Park. But as security there improved, poachers shifted their focus to KwaZulu-Natal, especially the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi area - where 307 rhinos were lost to poaching during 2023, which represents more than 60% of the national poaching losses and is an increase of 33% compared to 2022.
Private anti-poaching units (APUs) are stepping in to fill the gap. These agile, community-based teams use their local knowledge to track footprints, predict ambushes, and stay one step ahead but they remain underfunded and overstretched.
Meanwhile, smaller reserves beyond these hotspots continue to suffer quietly, as thousands of animals - including many rhinos - fall victim each month to hidden snares.
The Crime Syndicates Behind the Killings
This crisis isn’t the work of lone hunters but of ruthless, well-funded global syndicates operating like corporations. Their reach spans from South Africa’s wild plains to the lucrative markets of Asia, shielded by political corruption and supported by slick logistics.
At the bottom are local poachers, men from impoverished rural villages who know the land intimately but risk prison or death for only a fraction of the immense profits rhino horns fetch abroad. Above them are the shadowy middlemen supplying weapons, vehicles, and equipment. At the very top sit untouchable bosses, protected by layers of bribery and anonymity.
These networks operate with cold, calculated intelligence, buying insider information from GPS collar data and ranger patrol schedules to feeding times, often sourced from corrupt park staff, researchers, and rangers themselves. Payments flow in cash, mobile transfers, drugs, or bribes, ensuring poachers always know where and when the animals are most vulnerable.
Why do poachers keep coming back? Most aren’t criminals by choice. Some are drawn in by threats, others by addiction or the promise of steady pay. In places like northern KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, poverty and hunger leave families desperate. A single rhino horn can feed a family for months.
“I didn’t want to kill anything,” said one man from a village near Kruger. “But my son was hungry. The money changed our lives. Then they said, ‘Do it again.’”
Syndicates invest heavily in high-tech gear - encrypted radios, night-vision goggles, silencers - and coordinate missions with military precision. Escape routes are pre-planned, lookouts posted, and decoys deployed. Some have even hacked surveillance systems or bribed IT staff.
Corruption runs deep throughout the chain from customs officers smuggling contraband, to police losing case files, to lawyers dragging out trials. Many kingpins avoid justice. Sydney Petros Mabuza, an alleged rhino poaching kingpin, reportedly postponed or avoided numerous court appearances over several years, causing repeated delays in his trial. Despite facing serious charges, he was granted bail multiple times before ultimately being gunned down. Even justice institutions falter. The Skukuza Regional Court - commonly known as the Rhino Court and once a beacon of hope - was quietly shut down amid allegations of corruption involving senior officials.
On the ground, it often feels as if the system is working against conservation efforts, sometimes helping the very criminals it’s meant to stop.
Asia’s Deadly Obsession
The primary driver of rhino poaching in Africa is the persistent demand for rhino horn in parts of Asia, particularly Vietnam and China. Despite no scientific evidence supporting its effectiveness, rhino horn is still believed in some traditional medicine circles to treat ailments ranging from fever to cancer, and even serve as a hangover cure. In Vietnam, it has also become a status symbol among the elite, used as a luxury gift or ground into powder and consumed to flaunt wealth.
A single kilogram of rhino horn can fetch up to $60,000 on the black market — more than the price of gold — incentivizing well-organized criminal networks to supply it. These syndicates smuggle the horn from Africa to Asia via commercial air cargo, diplomatic pouches, or hidden compartments, often with the help of corrupt officials. Efforts to curb demand through public education campaigns in Asia have had some limited success, but the myth of rhino horn’s value remains deeply entrenched in cultural and social norms.
Not Just the Animals Are Dying
Drones fly overhead, lie detectors flag suspects, and raids hit trafficking routes but none of it fixes the real problem. As long as poverty drives people to desperation, corruption runs deep, and demand in Asia stays sky-high, we’re just patching holes in a sinking ship.
While the killing of wildlife makes the news, something quieter is breaking down. Communities are falling apart, caught in cycles of crime, fear, and hopelessness. People are losing faith in the police. Conservation, once a national source of pride, is worn thin by low funding, burnout, and growing disillusionment.
What we need isn’t more tech, fences, or force. We need jobs. We need justice. We need real pressure from the international community. Unless we deal with the roots — poverty, greed, addiction, and indifference — this war will keep destroying villages, lives, and wildlife.
And the animals? They’ll keep dying not because we couldn’t stop it, but because we didn’t.
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Zandré Lambrechts
Conservationist | Anti-Poaching Ranger