Behind Dion George's sacking

The move to oust the environment minister is not about his performance. Instead, it smacks of South Africa's National Elephant Heritage Strategy being hijacked to suit wildlife breeders.

- By Don Pinnock

When South Africa's National Elephant Heritage Strategy (NEHS) was gazetted this year, it looked like a triumph of inclusive environmental policy — a humane, forward-looking plan to celebrate elephants as wildlife and as part of our shared cultural and spiritual heritage. It promised to move the country beyond the exploitative logic of the past into a new era of coexistence and respect.

But the same progressive vision that made the NEHS such a breakthrough has now placed its strongest defender, Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment Dion George, in the crosshairs. His potential firing is not just a personnel change - it is the culmination of a campaign by powerful private wildlife interests to recapture the department and reverse reform.

Internationally, George's opening statement at the COP30 leaders' summit in Belém, Brazil - drawing a hard line against captive breeding, the rhino horn trade and the commodification of wildlife - was both principled and forward-looking, but it would have left wildlife breeders seething.

But clarity has made enemies. Pressure to get rid of him has been building behind closed doors. Complaints were filed. There were whispers of "performance reviews". The party line shifted. And then, suddenly, DA leader John Steenhuisen asked President Cyril Ramaphosa to replace George with Willie Aucamp, a longtime ally of the wildlife-ranching and hunting lobby.

Officially, the reason is "underperformance". In reality, the timing reveals the truth: a final workshop to close out the long-delayed threatened or protected species legislation and lion breeding regulations had just been completed - a process intended to finally close the captive lion industry. Days later came the call to remove George. It looks far less like a review than an act of retaliation.

Who stands to gain?