Five mature baobabs were dug up in Limpopo without permits, trucked 800km to Durban and left on their sides in a logistics car park for three months. Their destination: allegedly, Georgia, on the Black Sea.
Environmental journalist Tony Carnie got an anonymous tip-off, photographed the trees through a fence and followed the trail to a private botanical park owned by former Georgian prime minister Bidzina Ivanishvili, who had already taken eight baobabs from Kenya.
On Beyond the Lead, Tamsin Metelerkamp and Lerato Mutsila ask Tony how the trees slipped past the authorities, who is responsible now that criminal charges have been laid, and why plant smuggling is a $21bn-a-year crime that rarely makes the news.
Read Tony’s reporting on Daily Maverick:
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-29-the-tree-loving-georgian-billionaire-the-pretoria-landscaper-and-the-sa-baobab-export-row/
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-10-25-baobab-trees-seized-in-durban-ship-warehouse-probe/
Subscribe to the Maverick Earth newsletter: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/maverick-earth/
Hosted by: Lerato Mutsila and Tamsin Metelerkamp
Guest: Tony Carnie
Edited by: Joel Seboa
Produced by: Emilie Gambade & Joel Seboa
Original Theme Music & Design by: Bernard Kotze
You can listen to the podcast everywhere, including YouTube, Apple Podcast and Spotify!
Support journalism that protects democracy. Become a Maverick Insider. https://tinyurl.com/SupportDailyMaverick
This episode of Beyond the Lead is brought to you by the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom, an organisation dedicated to strengthening democracy and human rights across the world, and creating new momentum for liberalism.
Subscribe to our channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyMaverickSA/videos
Follow us on X : https://x.com/dailymaverick
Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dailymaverick
Check our website: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/
Check out our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/dailymaverick/
Check out our TikTok page: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailymavericksa
Download Daily Maverick Mobile App: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/daily-maverick-app/
Chapters:
00:00 Baobab Smuggling Teaser
00:28 Meet the Baobab Giants
00:55 Tip Off in Durban
01:39 Protected Tree Laws
02:33 Limpopo Cultural Meaning
03:50 Heartbreak and Delays
04:42 Tony Joins the Story
05:16 Following the Anonymous Lead
09:07 Permits and Enforcement Gaps
11:55 Georgia Billionaire Link
16:00 Global Plant Trafficking
21:01 Saving Confiscated Specimens
#baobabtree #baobab #treesmuggling #wildliferescue #southafrica #plantcrime #DailyMaverick #environmentalprotection
