There is no mistaking the passion in his eyes. Even before we take our seats for an interview inside the auditorium behind the Botswana Defence Force headquarters, Brigadier Sentsekae Macheng has already started waxing lyrical about the “new conflict in our hands.”
 
“You will pardon me. I am not used to formalities,” he says offering me a seats with a “make yourself comfortable.”
The new conflict in our hands is a reference to the unfolding dynamics surrounding poaching in Botswana.
Over and over again he mentions how poaching in Botswana has long ceased to be “for the pot.”
The undertaking, he says is highly commercialised, transnational and sophisticated.
Early in the interview, the brigadier narrates a story of how not so long ago a group of poachers went out of their way to prove how daring they could be.
At a private game ranch in the North West District, game ranchers arrested three poachers from a group of twelve.
A few minutes later those that had earlier escaped showed up again and literally demanded the release of their compatriots; at gunpoint of course.
Clearly not a match for the intruders, the private wardens released all of the poachers to go, and by the time the army backup arrived they had vanished into the bushy thickets.“Some of them are prepared to kill. It has happened before. Botswana Defence Force officers have in the past been shot. We have lost our soldiers to poachers,” says Macheng.
By his account he has been on this job for so long that he has seen it all. The scale of the problem will take much more than political will ÔÇô and by any standards Botswana has a lot of political will to fight poaching.
A veteran anti-poaching operative, Brigadier Macheng says even his close to thirty year service could not have prepared him for the scale of elephant mass slaughter that was recently discovered at Savuti in the Chobe National Park. The suspicion is that the animals had been poisoned, most probably at their drinking point. It was the heaviest single loss of wildlife Macheng had ever seen in his long anti-poaching career.
The only consolation that was derived from the disaster was that law enforcement officers got to the scene before the perpetrators.
“Tusks were still there but it was only a matter of timing,” he said. For Macheng the storm clouds have long started to gather.
Over the years he has observed how poaching has grown increasingly militarised and more daring. His observation is that there has been a proliferation of weapons especially in neighbouring countries that have had a history of political instability as a result of liberation wars. When independence came to those countries, demobilization of guerrillas and integration into regular armies were not always seamless. Some of the people who were demobilized made away with arms of war. Thus, he says latter day poachers are people with distinct military background. Their weapons are also very sophisticated, competing bang for bang with those used by regular armed forces. Aggravating an already complex situation is the fact that it has been found that the law enforcement units and security services agents have not only been infiltrated but some of them are actively involved in the criminal underworld that is involved in dissipating the country’s wildlife.
“It is very clear that the poaching syndicates have inside information on our intelligence. They clearly have access as shown by the fact that their decision cycle is often ahead of us. This can only be because they have people among us,” says Macheng. Brigadier Macheng is well aware that demand in China is fuelling poaching not just in Botswana but across the African continent. He says perhaps out of desperation some conservationist have gone as far as to suggest flooding the Chinese market with ivory as a way of dampening demand, before adding that conservationists have shot down that strategy as a non-starter given the size of the Chinese market. Like the rest of the African continent, Botswana has not been spared the influx of Chinese nationals many of who come into the country as legitimate engineers and contractors. But, says Macheng, intelligence has again and again shown that once in the country these contractors often double either as poachers or poaching liaisons, allowing their site camps to be used as bases from which to launch the illegal activities. Perhaps as more evidence of the extent of resourcefulness of these construction sites to poaching syndicates, contractors are often unwilling to close down and demobilize their camps long after legitimate projects have been completed and handed over to government. There is also proof that in the areas to the north of the county where elephant numbers are high, poaching levels often spike high around construction areas. “I must point out that not every Chinese is a poacher.
But so far all evidence shows that Asians have come with their own issues. There used to be a problem of the market but now the market is right here among us. Construction workers and constructions sites have also proved a problem. Our covert operations have sufficiently proved that,” says Brigadier Macheng.
While the Chinese have no doubt brought in a new dimension of sophistry to Botswana’s poaching mix, Macheng insists that locals remain an important component of the chain. “We can label the names with levels of involvement; there are incursions from Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe, but in all the cases there is assistance from locals. We have found that in some cases local cattle posts provide the much needed logistical backup to the foreigners,” said Macheng.
The Botswana Defence Force and the Wildlife anti-poaching unit have often arrested poachers well armed to the teeth, clad in military fatigues and armed with semi-automatic military style rifles.
All evidence point to the fact that increasingly the smuggling syndicates are not only growing more militarized but also more sophisticated and determined. Their tactics and styles are top notch military tactics, clearly mounted by people with professional military backgrounds, says Macheng.
“The manner of killings shows military tactics are routinely involved. If you take Chobe for example, we see poachers who exhibit military skills.” To be more effective, says Macheng, poachers have now resorted to growing in smaller units of about seven people, with every member of the group highly skilled in their area of specialization. In all such groups, every member has a clear-cut role which range from providing surveillance intelligence, providing logistical support and providing overall security to other insurgents. “Their positions show comprehensive knowledge of military and security applications. They employ anti-tracking tactics, they are well versed in evasive measures including hiding in holes which makes it very difficult to pick them from a helicopter,” said Macheng.
“More than ever before they are prepared to kill,” says Brigadier Macheng.”As a matter of fact we have in the past lost our officer to these poachers,” he adds.
Macheng is of the view that poaching has with time become transnational. More and more poachers choose areas where law and order are at their weakest or where governance has collapsed. Across the world, there is proof that areas which are effectively on the brink of anarchy provide a fertile ground for poachers to settle and take root, more like is the case with international terrorism.
“The nature of this conflict is transnational. Whatever is happening in Savuti today may be directly linked to what is happening in Kenya. It is now public knowledge that Ugandan army is poaching in the DRC, South Sudan army is involved in poaching as is the DRC army,” said Macheng.
At the rate things are going, Macheng is adamant that unless the tide turns quickly it will not be long before Botswana’s elephant population -for many years the country’s most celebrated example of conservation success will be significantly drawn down.┬á “Wildlife is much more important than just money. It is much more important for future generations who also have to have a chance to grow up and see it. Increasingly we now see poachers taking away live predators ÔÇô mothers and cubs. They don’t spare anything. This affects conservation at the bottom of the chain because it undermines the ability to multiply. We have a duty to future generations. To be fair to them we have to protect these animals,” says Macheng.
