A Botswana minister has told Gary Lineker to come to his country to see the destruction caused by elephants after he backed a trophy hunting ban.
Ministers will today debate a proposed ban on British safari hunters bringing parts of animals they kill, such as tusks, back home.
The President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi has stressed his opposition to the bill claiming he would be ‘abhorred, disappointed and disturbed’ if it were to go through.
While Botswana’s environment and tourism minister Dumezweni Mthimkhulu had argued that trophy hunting was a way a of control animal numbers and a source of income for people adding that the bill was ‘counterproductive’.
After he heard that the Match Of The Day presenter was in favour of the ban he said: ‘I want to invite him to come to Botswana, so that he can really understand and see what is going on in the country with the elephants… with the trophy hunting.’
President of Botswana Mokgweetsi Masisi and his wife Neo Masisi
Politicians from African nations reportedly threatened to send 10,000 wild elephants to Hyde Park so British people know what it is like to live with them.
Mr Mthimkhulu said: ‘Elephant numbers, like those of Scottish stags, have to be controlled. Hunters in the Highlands pay to shoot deer and put their antlers on their walls. So why is Britain trying to stop Africa doing the same? We don’t want colonial interference from Britain.’
A delegation of 50 scientists, economists, politicians and farmers from Botswana met politicians in London this week, determined to explain why any ban will have negative repercussions 5,000 miles away.
Speaking on The World With Yalda Hakim, Mr Masisi defended trophy hunting as ‘you pick which [animal] you hunt’ whereas ‘culling’ has a connotation of ‘ethical abhorrence’ associated with it.
Mr Mthimkhulu added: ‘Botswana is the most successful country in the world at looking after elephants, buffalo, and lions. We don’t want colonial interference from Britain.’
He said elephant numbers in Botswana have almost ‘tripled’ from 50,000 in 1984 to 130,000 in 2024 – causing ‘a lot of chaos’, with the animals in ‘constant conflict with humans’.
The minister said he could not understand why some people in other countries find the pursuit abhorrent.
He said his government is supportive of trophy hunting because it is ‘controlled’ and ‘good for our people’.
‘Trophy hunting which is culling, is part of the way of the conservation of these animals,’ he said.
The current Bill, sponsored privately by Labour MP John Spellar but supported in the Tory manifesto, is the third time legislation to ban hunting trophy imports has been put forward to Parliament.