By Fidelis Zvomuya*
MBOMBELA, South Africa – The scourge of poaching is rife with images of bloodied and mutilated rhino carcasses, the horns hacked off by heavily-armed men hiding in the bush. Behind the scenes, though, women are an overlooked and crucial part of the brazen and violent acts that threaten the world’s rhino population.
Poaching syndicates in South Africa, where wildlife trafficking has flourished, increasingly recruit women because they can move more easily without being spotted by police or border customs officials.
“Women may not be holding the guns, but they are integral to how these operations function,” said JP Louw, head of communications for the South African National Parks (SANParks). “Their roles are nuanced and hidden, making them even more dangerous.”
‘WE WERE TRANSPORTING DEATH’
In the dim confines of a safe house, a woman once linked to a notorious rhino poaching kingpin now lives in a state of incessant fear. She smuggled rhino horns, drugs, and weapons across the border between South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique for a powerful wildlife syndicate. Now, she is a marked woman.
“I never chose this path,” said the woman, who agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because she is in hiding. “One moment I was selling fruit, the next I found myself smuggling rhino horns,” she said, her voice trembling with emotion.
It is not easy to find women willing to talk publicly about their involvement in poaching for fear of being targeted by police or the crime syndicates, which could put their families in danger. Since 2010, at least 23 women have been arrested for rhino horn smuggling in South Africa, according to police records.
The woman who agreed to be interviewed said she was unaware at first that she was carrying rhino horn, drugs, and weapons across the South African-Mozambican border.
“When I finally realized I was moving rhino horns, it was too late,” she said. “I was in too deep, and escaping felt impossible. We weren’t just moving horns; we were transporting death.”
Her story is common for women from impoverished communities desperate to provide a better living for their families. “As mothers, we need to feed our children,” the woman said. “They made it seem like I was just helping my family, but it spiralled into a nightmare.”
LUCRATIVE MARKET
The illegal wildlife trade, including rhino horn trafficking, is one of the most lucrative black markets in the world, worth an estimated $258 billion annually, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Rhino horn trade alone generated as much as $1.13 billion over the past decade, according to the Wildlife Justice Commission, a group headquartered in The Hague and dedicated to dismantling wildlife trafficking networks.
Demand for rhino horn is driven by Asian countries such as Vietnam and China, where the powdered horn is sold as an aphrodisiac and a cure for cancer or fever.
South Africa, home to nearly 80% of the world’s rhino population, has made advances in fighting rhino poaching, but the problem persists, according to the country’s environment minister.
The country lost 229 rhinos to poaching in the first half of 2024, compared to 231 for the same period in 2023, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment Dion George said in a statement in August. Kruger National Park, the vast protected area in the country’s eastern lowlands, lost 45 rhinos to poachers in those six months, slightly up from 42 in the same period in 2023.
“The brutal reality is that women are often coerced into these roles or driven by financial desperation,” said Annette Hübschle, chief research officer at the Global Risk Governance Programme at the University of Cape Town, who has studied the roles of women poaching networks.
“Some women actively participate in the killing or handling of illegal products, while others are coerced through violence or financial desperation,” she said, “Gender inequality and economic precarity render them particularly vulnerable.”
VICTIMS OR PERPETRATORS?
In April 2019, Thembi Juliegirl Mangane drove a getaway car for poachers who slaughtered a rhino in the Crocodile Bridge section of the Kruger National Park. She was arrested alongside two male accomplices and sentenced in 2023 to 16 years in prison, according to court documents.
Raised in an impoverished township near Kruger, Mangane joined the syndicate to make quick money, according to a relative who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Major-General Zeph Mkhwanazi, acting police provincial commission in Mpumalanga, said he hoped the sentence would be a warning to other women, calling the use of women by syndicates “calculated, ruthless exploitation.”
Romi Sigsworth, a research consultant at Enhancing Africa’s Ability to Counter Transnational Crime, said it was hard to know exactly how many women were involved in trafficking because their roles were often overlooked by law enforcement agencies.
“While some women have emerged as ‘queen-pins’ of poaching syndicates, most are involved at the lower levels,” Sigsworth said. “Research shows that women make up more than half of all traffickers moving endangered species, yet their roles remain largely undocumented.”
One notable case, according to Limpopo police spokesperson Colonel Malesela Ledwaba, involved a 36-year-old mother of two who was arrested in Phalaborwa, which borders Kruger National Park, during a raid that uncovered hippo skulls, luxury SUVs, and rhino horns.
Ledwaba said the female suspect and her 42-year-old male accomplice appeared before the Lulekani Magistrate’s Court facing charges of money laundering and poaching under the Wildlife Act. The suspects were arrested on 29 August during a raid at their residence in Prieska Village, Phalaborwa.
GANGLAND-STYLE HITS
Women have also become targets in gangland-style hits among rival syndicates. Last year, Charlene Felicity Mathews, the wife of notorious South African rhino poaching kingpin Chief Clyde Mnisi, was murdered two hours after her husband’s burial in Mkhuhlu, Bushbuckridge. Mnisi was shot dead by unknown gunmen near the Kruger Mpumalanga International Airport while changing a tyre. At the time, he was being investigated by South African police for his involvement in rhino poaching.
In June this year, Mnisi’s sister was ambushed and killed in a hail of bullets fired by unknown men at a McDonald’s drive-through in Hazyview, close to Kruger National Park. Earlier this year, Mnisi’s two brothers were killed by unknown assailants outside a tavern at Mkhuhlu.
The killing of Charlene Mathews “wasn’t isolated,” said forensic investigator David Hlomendlini. “The Mnisi family has been systematically targeted in a wave of violence tied to rhino poaching syndicates.”
Hübschle, the Cape Town-based researcher, said poaching syndicates often recruit women through family or community connections, using “threats of violence, social exclusion, or financial dependency” to manipulate them.
Efforts to provide alternative livelihoods for these women are essential, said Sigsworth, the researcher on transnational crime.
“Programs like the Black Mambas and Akashinga in Zimbabwe offer education and training, helping former poachers find purpose as protectors of wildlife,” she said. “These initiatives not only reduce female involvement in poaching but also uplift communities.”
Hübschle said providing alternative livelihoods for women or involving them in conservation efforts was essential to helping them avoid the syndicates.
“By fostering community resilience and supporting vulnerable individuals,” she said, “these programs offer a transformative path forward—one that protects both human lives and Africa’s wildlife.”
*This story was written as part of Wealth of Nations, a pan-African media skills development programme supported by the Thomson Reuters Foundation as part of its global work aiming to strengthen free, fair and informed societies. Any financial assistance or support provided to the journalist has no editorial influence. The content of this article belongs solely to the author and is not endorsed by or associated with the Thomson Reuters Foundation, Thomson Reuters, Reuters, nor any other affiliates. More information at www.wealth-of-nations.org
