South Africa’s minister of the Department of Fisheries, Forest and the Environment recently announced South Africa’s commitment to trophy hunting by publicising the trophy hunting quota for the year ahead. Included in the heady mix of commercialised blood lust are 150 elephant, 10 leopard and shockingly, 10 critically endangered black rhino.

Given the continued poaching crisis, the incompleteness of the commitment to end captive lion breeding and intense rhino breeding, the ministry seems to be backtracking, and we are suitably confused at the mixed messaging, the inconsistency in application of science, ethic and the inaccurate economic numbers used in the justification of these hunts.

Peter and Simon take a deep look into the rationale behind these quotas and hope that the minister will too.

The quotas are seemingly in stark contrast to the “One Welfare” policy adopted by Minister Barbara Creecy, and further evidence suggests that this allocation, almost exclusively for foreign white trophy hunters from America, is likely to do very little for conservation, reputation of the country and importantly, to promote authentic transformation in a sector that offers near zero representation of gender or racial transformation.