From Creamer Media in Johannesburg, this is the Real Economy Report.

Sashnee Moodley:

Leading mining exhibition Electra Mining Africa 2026 has named South African National Parks Honorary Rangers K9 Project Watchdog as its official charity partner, providing a platform to raise awareness and support for one of South Africa's most effective anti-poaching initiatives. Shannon de Ryhove has the story.

Shannon de Ryhove:

This exciting partnership was announced at Electra Mining Africa's exhibitor briefing in early June. Representatives from the SANParks Honorary Rangers K9 Project Watchdog and the Kruger National Park canine unit explained the vital role that highly trained dogs play in protecting South Africa's wildlife.

Kruger National Park K9 manager Sam Madalane shares how these anti-poaching dogs work on the front line to combat wildlife crime.

Kruger National Park K9 manager Sam Madalane…

Oh, the work they do, it's beautiful, it's unbelievable. These dogs are able to lead the ranger teams into making intercept or to make contact, because when we look back, where it was just rangers using their eyes to visually track and compare it to after us introducing the dogs, you cannot compare it, because we were hovering at 5%, just a ranger using his eyes to do a follow-up. If we look at the size of Kruger, it is big, it's the size of Israel, and it's over 2-million hectares, so it's big. So, after we've introduced the dogs, the first three dogs that we introduced, they took our arresting percentage rate up to 35% that was the pure-bred Malinois. And then after we've introduced the cold scent dogs, the bloodhounds, and then after we've crossbred with the Doberman, the bloodhound cross Doberman, then our number went up to 95%. We have tracked one team, from the start until the end, 145 kilometres, in three days, just following one team with one dog.

Shannon de Ryhove:

Madalane notes that the contribution these dogs have made to conservation efforts cannot be overstated.

Kruger National Park K9 manager Sam Madalane…

They've saved a lot of animals, a lot of animals. Without the dogs, I don't think rhinos would still be, would still be around the park.

So they are tracking for all poaching. We've trained these dogs to do what we call scent discrimination, so they discriminate all these other kind of scents. They only focus on human scent, and not only that, our numbers have went up to 95% just mainly on the tracking, but also we've introduced dogs that are doing detection, detecting all the contrabands. That can be lion bones that are set to leave the gate, lion bones, elephant tusk, rhino horn, leopard skin, pangolin scales, and also explosives, and but mainly focusing on ammunition and firearms.

Shannon de Ryhove:

Detection dogs are currently deployed at eight official gates within the Kruger National Park, while specialised K9 teams operate as part of the park's Special Operations unit. These dogs are trained for multiple roles, including detection, tracking and suspect apprehension.

Meanwhile, SANParks Honorary Rangers K9 Project Watchdog chairperson Moira Shein said the partnership with Electra Mining Africa will help the donor-funded initiative expand awareness of the work being done by conservation K9 units across South Africa's national parks. Both Shein and Madalane express the vital importance of donor funding for this initiative.

SANParks Honorary Rangers K9 Project Watchdog chairperson Moira Shein… 

So we really, really grateful to be partnering with Electra Mining Africa, and it's very exciting for us. It's really important because the canine project is supported by SanParks Honorary Ranges, of which K9 Project Watchdog is a national project, which supports San Parks in terms of their canine units. It is completely donor funded, and we need the awareness, we need people to understand what these dogs are doing and how important they are in the conservation of our wildlife for future generations.

Kruger National Park K9 manager Sam Madalane…

We are very reliant on donor funding, and without donor funding, I don't think the canine, or actually San Park's canine unit operations would be here where it is today, if it wasn't for donor funding.

Any contribution that they contribute is making a huge difference, and We are very grateful to be part of, to come and share what they've put in, and their contribution has a direct impact to the canine unit and the canine teams.

Shannon de Ryhove:

Besides the SANParks Project K9 Watchdog charity partnership, Electra Mining Africa 2026 is creating considerable excitement. Portfolio director Charlene Hefer details some of the biggest developments that visitors can look forward to this year.

Electra Mining Africa portfolio director Charlene Hefer…

We are so excited about this year. First thing is, we're at 44,000 square metres, it's 4000 square metres bigger than what we were previously, and a brand new record, so that means new companies, new areas for people to explore, and of course, new visitors.

There is so much happening. I think the first thing from a visitor point of view is our brand new navigational tool. So, as you arrive at Electra Mining, you'll get a WhatsApp, and that is your sort of guide for the day. But part of that WhatsApp is a full navigational tool that will take you to the stand that you want to go to, or the area that you would like to visit. That's really exciting, and we've also got the SAIMechE Skills and Career Hub, so anybody wanting to interact with universities, find out more about about academia, curriculums, graduates, that's the place to go. And then there are a lot of, sorry, there are a lot of operational changes on the back end, you know, coffee at the registration areas while our visitor, while visitors wait, little things like that that people will experience.

Shannon de Ryhove:

Visitors can also look forward to meeting the new mascot, a honey badger named Digger.

Electra Mining Africa portfolio director Charlene Hefer…

We found that during Electra Mining 2024 our visitors were looking for a brand touch point. They want to feel the brand in a different way, they want to experience it in a different way. So we came up with Digger. We chose a honey badger. He represents Electra Mining. We are tough as it comes, so is our exhibitors and our visitors. So he's a really good addition, and he's going to go and visit some of our sponsors, some of our partners leading up to the event, and then yes, keep a lookout for him at the event, he's going to get up to all sorts of mischief.

Sashnee Moodley:

That’s Creamer Media’s Real Economy Report. Join us again next week for more news and insight into South Africa’s real economy. Don’t forget to listen to the audio version of our Engineering News daily email newsletter.