SA is extraordinarily beautiful, yet suffering a biodiversity loss crisis. It is beyond rich in mineral wealth, yet many citizens suffer abject poverty. Conspicuous consumption is everywhere, yet we are the most unequal society on earth. A land of paradoxes. Imagine yourself growing up in Alexandra; poverty epitomised with Sandton’s riches on your doorstep.

 

The country’s Gini index of 63 (100 is most unequal and 0 the least) places us among the most unequal on the planet. The economy grew at 0.6% in 2024, while the population grew at 1.5%. Unemployment, on a narrow definition — excluding those who gave up looking for work more than four weeks before the survey — remains stubbornly high at about 33%. This is hardly the vision that heroes such as Nelson Mandela fought for. After 30 years of democracy, citizens have rightly called for a system of government that delivers tangible benefits in addition to civil liberties. The indignity of being unable to find work or having to rely on handouts can erode positive sentiment towards democracy.

 

Tourism vs environmental sustainability

Few sectors of the economy are growing; those that are, generally do not absorb enough labour to make a dent in the unemployment figures.

Tourism, however, remains a beacon of hope. Figures from the World Economic Forum’s travel & tourism development index show that 5.7-million tourists visited SA in 2024, spending about $4.7bn. Tourism accounted directly for about 3.5% of total employment in the country and contributed 2.5% to total GDP. However, on a score of 3.91 out of a possible 7, we rank 90th in the world on environmental sustainability — a pillar of the overall index that measures the sector’s “energy sustainability and the general sustainability of an economy’s natural environment and the protection of natural resources”.

 

Being predominantly coal-powered does not work in the country’s favour. But the more concerning thing is our growing inability to protect our natural resources. The most recent National Biodiversity Assessment (NBA) carried out in SA (2018) reminds us that the “diversity and uniqueness of SA’s species and ecosystems makes us one of the world’s 17 megadiverse nations”. Our ethical obligation to steward this heritage for future generations cannot be overstated, especially in the context of the Anthropocene and a likely sixth mass extinction.

 

The obligation is made even more pressing by SA’s proud conservation track record. One need only read Ian Player’s The White Rhino Saga to realise what it took to save the rhino in SA and now boast the largest population thereof on the planet. But it is under severe threat. At least 420 rhinos were poached last year, 320 of which were killed in state-owned reserves. Losing more than 10,000 rhinos in the past 15 years is a crisis. It is top of mind for many, given the importance of the big five for attracting tourists.

 

Less well known is the decimation of smaller animals such as pangolin, the world’s most trafficked mammal. Even less well known, and arguably more critical from an ecosystem health perspective, is that SA’s rare and aesthetically unique succulents are being illegally traded worldwide. One article records that since 2019, “over 1-million succulent plants from 650 species unique to SA have been illegally harvested” in the country.
 

Crime-environment nexus

A calamitous mix of factors has hit SA. A stagnating economy, weak law enforcement institutions, deep poverty and rampant organised crime coalesce to threaten our rich ecological heritage and hard-won civil liberties since 1994. The organised crime dimension is especially important to understand in this context, as poaching — from rhinos and abalone to succulents — is driven by highly sophisticated criminal networks. Indicating how deeply this problem is embedded, SA scored 7.18 (the higher the score, the worse the performance) on the Global Initiative’s organised crime index of 2023, the third highest of all 54 African countries.

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On “nonrenewable resource crimes”, we scored 8. As the report notes: “Plant crime is rarely prosecuted, and there is little funding devoted to combating it. SA is primarily a source country for wildlife crime, with the illegal wildlife trade involving the poaching of high-value species such as rhino, lion and elephant from the Kruger National Park, as well as the illegal trade of animal parts to external markets, mainly in Asia.” Organised criminal gangs can recruit from a seemingly endless supply of potential poachers in SA and along the Mozambican border, and often act with impunity due to institutional weakness among law enforcement agencies.

 

To confront any storm effectively, one needs to have a game plan. Future guardians of our ecological heritage are the country’s youth. Youth unemployment is possibly almost double the national average, and educational outcomes are exceptionally weak in international terms. Stewarding the country’s natural resources for our grandchildren depends firstly on improving material prospects for young people and connecting them to our rich biodiversity in tangible ways.

 

If you’ve grown up in Alexandra, relative deprivation may drive you into a life of crime. Being forced to eke out a living can render biodiversity conservation something almost ethereal, irrelevant. However, many Alex residents do come from wildlife-rich rural areas, and return home after working in Johannesburg.

 

Guardian Angel Wildlife and Marine Trust

This is where Guardian Angel Wildlife and Marine Trust (Guardian Angel) enters the picture. In my role as chief research officer at Good Governance Africa (GGA), I first met Raymond Kramer — founder of Guardian Angel — at a conference GGA co-hosted in Johannesburg with the Attorney General Alliance (AGA) on tackling the illegal wildlife trade in
2022. Kramer attended the conference because he wanted to protect SA’s wild spaces for the sake of his grandchildren and all future generations. Impressed by the way in which the conference brought law enforcement practitioners from different sectors and government departments across the
continent together, Kramer shared his vision with me that subsequently led to the creation of Guardian Angel. It was inspired exactly by the paradox of Alexandra Township described above.

 

Guardian Angel aims “to foster a deeper appreciation and understanding of the intricate connections between humans and the natural world. By educating people about the precarious balance in wildlife and marine environments, we are not only safeguarding biodiversity — we are ensuring a healthier planet for future generations.” As with any ambitious conservation-education model, the Guardian Angel approach will require rigorous long-term evaluation to measure impact.

 

I serve on the advisory panel of Guardian Angel, with other reputable Africans, because I support this mission wholeheartedly. SA needs a unique vehicle through which law enforcement and youth education combine to generate a love for wild spaces and dedication to their protection. Former Botswana president Ian Khama — the patron for Guardian Angel and a close friend of Kramer — told me a few years ago that the only way to save wildlife was to imbue citizens with a deep sense of appreciation for the natural world; a bit like David Attenborough has done through his nature documentaries.

 

Many organisations operate in this space, which raises the question of Guardian Angel’s unique value proposition. It comes down to Kramer’s experience across many African countries, and his ability to select the right team of people. Since the 1980s, when many countries were in Cold-War related turmoil, Kramer has been eager to build up trade and investment between emerging economies on the continent. As Kramer has often said to me: “I don’t get involved in politics; I love SA; I love Africa; I’m here to do business and get things done.”

 

Pan-African engagement

Navigating evolving jurisdictions in Africa during the 1990s was challenging. Businesspeople engaging in postconflict or unstable jurisdictions were often vulnerable to misrepresentation or incomplete reporting. Kramer recently reflected on a search he conducted on himself using artificial intelligence (AI), noting how some older media reports lacked the full picture. Conservation itself is a controversial space, as I can attest, and people want to know who the key players are.

 

Kramer started his working life as a Johannesburg businessperson. In 1999 his company, the Kramer Trade and Technology (KT&T) company, was contracted to supply rations to the Ugandan army to the value of $1.48m. When the food arrived, the recipients refused payment on the pretext of the rations being unfit for consumption. An international arbitration suit launched through the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) followed. In June 2001, the principal private secretary to the president wrote to Kramer confirming that the arbitrator had awarded full payment to KT&T. An internal investigation exonerated Kramer and his company of any fault — the president of Uganda publicly consumed some of the food himself. The letter closed with an unequivocal apology for the “inconvenience, expense and personal trauma” endured by Kramer, and full payment, including damages, was confirmed by sworn affidavit.

 

In Sierra Leone in 1999, Kramer had handed over a container of supplies for children through the Triple R Commission in the immediate aftermath of the Lomé Peace Agreement. This gesture came after an invitation to Kramer from the newly formed government to facilitate an investment conference.

 

A report from the next year alleged contact with a rebel leader, and that Kramer had been asked to send supplies to the Revolutionary United Front (RUF). Kramer did not do so. Often misunderstood is that the RUF leader was a legitimate part of the government at the time after the peace agreement and, given that the conference would have involved mineral resource investments, Kramer had to deal with him.

 

Ten years later, a letter from the office of the president of Sierra Leone, under Ernest Bai Koroma, invited Kramer to again facilitate investment opportunities in the country. This reinforces a broader pattern: that Kramer has consistently built constructive relationships in Africa through developmental business activities, which bodes well for impactful conversation work.

 

Urgency and hope

This is exemplified perhaps no better than in a letter from Khama to Kramer, penned in September 2023. Khama wrote that it was unprecedented for him to do so, but he felt compelled to express his pleasure at having interacted with Kramer and commended him for solving problems and creating innovative solutions. Similarly, the late Douglas Gibson, in his capacity as SA’s ambassador to Thailand, had similarly testified in a letter of commendation that Kramer “does not give up easily … he has staying power and the ability to see projects through”.

 

Khama’s position as patron of Guardian Angel is strategic and intentional. Khama was the first African president to stand up against trophy hunting — especially of elephants. He hasindicated that inviting a colonial activity such as elephanthunting reinforced a narrative in Botswana of “white hunter; black poacher” — wealthy whites could kill wildlife as “sport” but when black citizens killed wildlife it was “poaching”. He banned the practice in late 2013, but the moratorium was lifted by his successor in 2019, much to the chagrin of conservationists. Mokgweetsi Masisi lost the elections in Botswana last year. It is hoped that the new president, Duma Boko, will follow in Khama’s footsteps, as Khama established Botswana as a safe haven for elephants and a tourism destination that became rightly revered as genuinely wild.

 

It is also no accident that both Gibson and Khama note Kramer’s extensive network across the continent and beyond. Their letters convey an indication of the confidence they place in his judgment and integrity.

I have witnessed the energy and carefulness with which Kramer is driving Guardian Angel to be at the forefront of influencing environmental education, imbuing students with a strong sense of responsibility towards protecting the country’s natural resources. These efforts, including exposure to opportunities in the wildlife conservation and tourism space for underprivileged children — especially those from Alex — are directed at intervening in the heart of SA’s paradoxes of vast but vulnerable natural beauty juxtaposed against poverty and weak governance.

 

In a new initiative, Guardian Angel has partnered with Scouts SA to empower high school learners from Alexandra through environmental education and life-skills development. With co-sponsorship from the department of social development, the programme will equip more than 100 students initially — with the potential to reach 1,000 by year-end — with the tools, discipline and conservation ethics necessary to become stewards of SA’s natural heritage. The initiative represents a tangible investment in building character, leadership and ecological responsibility among the country’s most underserved youth.

Full circle

In SA, at least 103 rhinos have been poached in 2025 already. While 15 arrests and five successful prosecutions were made in the first quarter, it remains clear that organised crime networks are successfully hitting their targets. In Mozambique, the first Isis attacks have been reported in Niassa. The figures regarding the damage to people and wildlife are frightening. I mention this because amid political instability, weak law enforcement capacity and corruption, organised crime thrives; people and nature suffer. The reason Guardian Angel is tackling education and law enforcement simultaneously is that we have to protect wildlife now to ensure its conservation for future generations. We also have to build into future generations a love for — and desire to protect — our last remaining wild spaces.

 

Guardian Angel not only brings a new dimension to conservation in Southern Africa, but aims to bring hope to the thousands of youngsters growing up in places like Alex that they too can become guardians of our shared ecological heritage.

• Harvey is director of Harvey Economics, a research consultancy firm.