Pot is Half Full After Kwazulu Game Auction

Business Day (Johannesburg)

June 21, 2004
Nicola Jenvey , Kwazulu-Natal Correspondent
Durban

Rhino glut a factor as income tumbles

There will be worried discussions around the Ezemvelo KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife boardroom table after its annual game auction raised only R9,6m at the weekend after raising R23m last year.

The provincial conservation authority withdrew 28 Cape buffalo worth about R4m from the auction 10 days ago. The animals had returned inconclusive test results for corridor disease.

Ezemvelo CEO Khulani Mkhize blamed the stronger rand, the drought and the successful rehabilitation of white rhino that has produced a glut of the previously endangered animals in private ownership for the lower auction figures.

Rated by the game industry as among the world's top auctions, the event has earned a solid reputation for providing quality game kept and delivered under good conditions.

Established in 1989, the annual auction affords Ezemvelo a sustainable method for disposing of surplus stock from the 100 protected areas within its control.

Proceeds from the auction, where the majority of animals are sold to private reserves for dollardenominated hunting, are ploughed back into nature conservation and account for a valuable portion of the authority's R350m operating budget.

Vleissentraal auctioneer Willie Roux described the antelope prices as "fair", but believed the white rhino prices reflected both the vast number of animals already on the market and the impact of game auctions being held "somewhere in the country every weekend".

Several of the 30 white rhinos on auction were withdrawn, as bidders missed the reserve price. Successful bids ranged between R50000 for an 18-month-old hand-raised male calf and R142500.

Last year the hammer fell at between R102500 and R420000 during the rhino auction .

Mkhize said the authority would negotiate to sell privately to bidders for the withdrawn lots.

Ezemvelo also changed its black rhino lot, offering three single lots of an adult male rather than the traditional six-strong family package.

The animals sold for R110000, R140000 and R145000 against a record R3m raised for the family unit several years ago.

The conservation authority promoted a Black Rhino Expansion Programme in the past year.

Recognising that communities and landowners may have the necessary land but not the money to buy endangered animals, the programme relocates black rhino families into suitable habitations, with the offspring shared equally between the authority and the landowners.

The auction did smash two South African records. A pair of hand-reared orphaned common duiker sold for R4750 each, and the hammer fell on a lot of 10 dassies at R450 each. Last year's 10-animal dassie lot had gone for R325 each .