Dear Madam Minister

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To: Minister Barbara Creecy

Department of Environmental Affairs, Forestry & Fisheries.

Dear Madam Minister,

I have watched and listened to matters which emanated from your Panel of Experts operation and came to the conclusion that I am very happy not be working and living in your shoes. I am always concerned about all that comes out of your office because I know that nothing good will happen unless it is undertaken as a consequence of good governance. And good governance at ministerial level occurs when good advice and good support comes out from the minister’s office and is passed on to the minions who are required to carry out your instructions. This gets complicated when the minister is new to her post and not fully conversant with the subject matter for which she is responsible. And I see the Panel of Experts as being the means you have employed to fill that gap. The True Green Alliance congratulates you on a job well done so far – and we pledge our support and assistance in making your job easier as time goes on.

I wish to assure you that my goodwill and congratulatory sentiments are shared by everyone in the wildlife and hunting industries.

With kind regards

Ron Thomson. CEO-TGA

Ron Thomson

I am NOT a ‘trophy hunter’ - and never have been. I am not involved in the trophy hunting safari business. I am also not a game rancher. But I have ‘administratively controlled’ professional hunters and safari outfitters in my capacity as a government game warden. I am an 80 year old ex-game warden with 60 years of continuous experience in hands-on wildlife management, and national park management, in Africa (1959 to 2019). In breakdown, I have 24 years experience in the management of national parks in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe - and in the management of the wild animal populations that lived inside those national parks; one year as the Chief Nature Conservation of the Ciskei in South Africa; three years as Director of the Bophuthatswana National Parks Board in South Africa; and I worked for three years as a professional hunter in the South African Great Karoo (taking foreign hunters on quests for plains game trophies). I discovered, however, that professional hunting was not my forte. I worked as an investigative wildlife journalist for 30 years in South Africa. I have written fifteen books and hundreds of magazine articles on the subject of wildlife management and big game hunting in Africa. Five of my books are university-level text books on wildlife management. I am a university-trained ecologist; was a member of the Institute of Biology (London) for 20 years; and was a registered chartered biologist for the European Union for 20 years. I have VAST experience in the “management hunting” of elephants, buffaloes, lions, leopards and hippos (as part of my official national park work in the control of problem animals); and I pioneered the capture of black rhino in Zimbabwe’s Zambezi Valley (1964 - 1970). My university thesis was entitled: “The Factors Affecting the Survival and Distribution of Black Rhinos in Rhodesia”. Look at my personal website if you want any further details about my experience: www.ronthomsonshuntingbooks.co.za.

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