Government may re-erect 150km Moz border fence

The fence is to be re-erected following a surge in rhino poaching in the Kruger National Park. Mathebula was unable to give further details about the meeting. Earlier this week Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa confirmed that a 150km stretch of fence will be re-erected along SA's border with Mozambique, while an additional 150 rangers would be added to the existing 500 rangers currently employed in the Kruger, to combat rhino poaching.

Mathebula said the re-erected fence will pose no threat to the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, which incorporated national parks in South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. "This does not change the transfrontier park", he said, "[it] will remain intact." The first elephants were relocated from the Kruger to the Mozambican side of the transfrontier park in October 2001. The release of the elephants aimed to signal the start of a fenceless mega park, incorporating the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, the Kruger, and Gonarezhou National Park in Zimbabwe. A spike in rhino poaching, however, has caused wildlife officials to call for the fence to be re-erected.

SANparks chief executive David Mabunda said the fence, if approved, would cost an estimated R250 million to build. "We still have a fence or what used to be a fence. That part of the fence is in a bad state of repair." The proposed fence would be electrified but would not be lethal, and serve more as an early warning system, Mabunda said. A total of 448 rhino were killed in South Africa in 2011. Another 11 have been killed in the country this year so far. 232 people had been arrested for rhino poaching, two poachers have been killed and another two have been arrested in connection with rhino poaching in the Kruger this year.

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