MBOMBELA – The Hawks Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation has been probing the self-professed rhino-horn trader, Mr Jianguang Guan, for a while as “a person of interest”.

Guan, as his name is stated in a copy of an expired passport Lowvelder has seen, has apparently gone underground. He has not been seen in the city, where he has numerous business interests like a massage salon and spa, since the airing of the documentary The Poachers’ Pipeline on Al Jazeera on Sunday.

Hawks spokesman, Brig Hlangwani Mulaudzi, confirmed this week it had tried to persuade the news service not to air it, as it was worried it might compromise its investigation into alleged crime kingpins.

In the documentary Guan claims on a hidden camera to know state security minister, Mr David Mahlobo intimately and to have bribed officials to keep illegal immigrants in the country.

Mahlobo has instructed Mpumalanga police commissioner, Lt Gen Bethuel Zuma, to investigate Guan’s claims against him.

Minister for the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA), Dr Edna Molewa, has also defended Mahlobo.

In the documentary the chairman of Pathfinder, Mr Nigel Morgan, claims his firm’s contract with SANParks was cancelled on June 3, 2014 for receiving foreign funding. He charges they were too successful and getting too close to “the truth”.

According to the minutes of a meeting of SANParks’ Conservation and Tourism Committee on May 15, 2014, this deemed them a security risk by Mahlobo and the DEA (See gallery).

Mahlabo has repeatedly publicly accused organisations receiving money from overseas of undermining national security.

Molewa said the reason for the termination was that “the scope of work and appointment of Pathfinder was not properly consulted with the security cluster,” according to a parliamentary document dated July 25, 2014.

The minister added, “Public representatives are requested to pose for photographs by members of the public all the time and to use images to conclude the minister is involved in poaching is flimsy.”

True of false, Guan’s claims have caused a stir. He has been operational in the Lowveld for at least 10 years.

The copy of Guan’s expired Chinese passport shows he was born in Guangdong in August 1970.

The passport was issued on October 12, 2005 and expired on October 11, 2010. It carried a Commissioner of Oaths stamp dated October 4, 2006 from the Matsulu Community Centre.

Guan was allowed at the time to have an extension on his temporary residential permit. He purportedly worked for Zing Trading Company in 2006, on a temporary permit.

Locally, he also goes by the name of “Ken”. He is the owner of not only the Jin Lu Chinese Massage and Beauty Salon at Sonpark, but also the same named spa in the Khayalami Boutique Hotel in Sonheuwel which also includes a nail bar.

One of the hotel’s conference managers, Mr Farai Bamga, confirmed that it is a venue that is regularly used by government officials and police departments for conferences and functions. Neither was open for business this week.
However, Guan’s restaurant, Shiang Xu, run by manager Ken Yu, remained operational.

Mahlobo acknowledged the Jin Lu Chinese Massage and Beauty Salon was his nail bar of choice when in Mbombela.

“Many people and other comrades use it,” he added.

He claimed that he didn’t know Guan’s name until he heard it in the documentary.

He did not comment on the fact that in August Lowvelder had received complaints about the nail bar. Some customers had a fungus growing on their nails after having had them done at the establishment.

Lowvelder followed the salon’s employees who live together as a family in Guan’s upmarket house, to a complex in Stonehenge.

They drive around a white Jetta that is registered in his name. A bakkie registered in his name has been standing in a parking place in Sonpark unattended for days.

Ms Chelsea Wei, believed to be his “stepdaughter” and who appears on photographs with Mahlobo in a familiar way, has left Mbombela for Johannesburg, according to information Lowvelder received.

Rumour is rife that Guan is in China.

Most other close “family members” have remained in the city and work at his sushi restaurant, Shiang Xu.

Parliament’s environmental affairs committee chairman, Mr Phil Mapulane, the DA and Popcru, have called for a full investigation into Mahlobo’s alleged involvement with Guan. The DA and COPE have called for Mahlobo’s suspension pending the investigation.

The president, Mr Jacob Zuma’s office did not respond to the newspaper’s request for comment. Malaudzi said no details could be provided about the Guan investigation by the Hawks.

“We do not discuss operational matters,” he said.

Lowvelder’s attempts to contact Guan this week were unsuccessful. His cellphones were answered by a male speaking mandarin. On one occassion the phone was given to Chelsea but conversations were cut short.