Interview with Nhema

Date: 4 August 2002

Source: Carte Blanche

Presenter: Zaa Nkweta

Zaa: 'You've watched the insert – do you find the level of poaching you saw unacceptable?'

Minister: 'There is never an acceptable level of poaching. What I saw on the tape is criminal.'

Zaa: 'So what will you do for this particular situation? What concrete steps are you going to take?'

Minister: 'In short, what are we already doing? We have put in place more police force, more staff from national parks, we have asked the army to assist us, and that is what they are doing now. And I'm happy with that progress.'

Zaa: 'It has also been reported that some of these army troops are also the ones who are doing the poaching themselves.'

Minister: 'That's speculation.'

Zaa: 'It doesn't look to me like you're protecting one of your most special natural resources.'

Minister: 'I can only protect, once you put me into the picture.'

Zaa: 'You should be in on the picture already. We shouldn't have to put you into the picture.'

Minister: 'It's not you – it's these guys who have obviously shown you where to go and where it's happening.'

Zaa: 'As Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, do you have the power to change things?'

Minister: 'Of course.'

Zaa: 'Do you have the political clout to change things?'

Minister: 'I do. I have to defend, like any other minister, my portfolio.'

Zaa: 'Are you in charge of your mandate?'

Minister: 'I am. But until I am also in charge of those conservancies – because at this stage they are not in my jurisdiction, because first and foremost they remain under Agriculture and Farmland. They have not been designated as wildlife areas. I am saying to the Minister of Agriculture, 'This land is best for wildlife'.'

Zaa: 'National Parks said in their report last year that the decision to resettle conservancies defies logic.'

Minister: 'I am competing with Agriculture, because the land you are talking about is not originally a wildlife area, and I believe it's in my interests to negotiate with the Minister of Agriculture so that conservancies remain as conservancies.'

Zaa: 'But isn't time running out?'

Minister: 'What legal instruments do I have as of now? What should I do – go to Parliament, go to government and make sure that I get that land under my ambit as a wildlife conservancy area.'