Eventually, a man was spotted out walking a German Shepherd with a bandaged leg. When he was identified as the Good Samaritan, he was thanked for his – and his dog’s – bravery on behalf of all of us.  Ivory chess figurines for sale at the Panjiayuan Market, Beijing (Photo: Alamy)   Apparently, many people in China believe that elephant tusks are simply shed by their owners – in the way that lizards lose their tails – and therefore there is no harm in buying trinkets made from ivory.  It’s one of several misconceptions that the anti-poaching lobby is trying to tackle by harnessing the power of celebrity, both in China and in Africa.  In China, the adored former NBA basketball player Yao Ming has been talking about a visit to Kenya during which he saw elephants’ faces chain-sawed away for their precious tusks. Yao Ming has an impressive track record – his work with the US charity WildAid to raise awareness about the evils of shark fin soup prompted the Chinese government to ban it from state banquets and led to a 50 per cent drop in the price as demand fell.  In East Africa, WildAid is now trying the same tactics to engage public sympathy for the plight of elephants. Actress Lupita Nyong’o, best known for her role in 12 Years a Slave, popped up in her native Kenya in June as WildAid’s new elephant ambassador.  Such campaigns are great if they can swing the public behind the decision-makers. But anti-poaching efforts often come into conflict with powerful vested interests in government. Until that issue is dealt with, celebrity tears can only do so much.  South Africa's immigration officials are over zealous (Photo: REUTERS/Mike Hutchings)   An American doctor and her three children recently had an unnerving encounter with the South African immigration authorities after being pulled over at Johannesburg airport at the start of what should have been an idyllic family holiday.  Martina Mookadam had been due to travel with her husband – like her a doctor at the private Mayo Clinic in Arizona – but as they changed planes in London he had been called back to the US to provide urgent treatment to a member of a Middle Eastern royal family.  As a result, Mrs Mookadam travelled as a lone parent and fell foul of strict new rules in South Africa designed to prevent child trafficking. She should have had all three children’s unabridged birth certificates, plus a signed police affidavit from her husband.  After 48 hours of travel, and half a day in airport custody, the Mookadams were told they would be deported back to the US. Only when relatives of the family contacted Gift of the Givers (GotG), a major South African charity, were they allowed to get on with their holiday, after it put out a furious statement about the “huge embarrassment” caused to the country. GotG applauded the climbdown but noted that had Mrs Mookadam been a “street vendor from Chad” she might not have been so lucky.
Johannesburg Notebook: A policeman told me that horrific crimes only really   affect the townships, as though that made it somehow OK