White-collar workers turn to poaching
RHINO poaching has become so lucrative, it is now attracting white-collar workers like teachers and librarians who hire others to kill the animals and then organise the marketing and sale of the horns.
In KwaZulu-Natal, a teacher and a librarian have both appeared in court on rhinopoaching charges relating to separate incidents.
Barend Lottering, owner of the private Nyathi Anti-Poaching Unit, said yesterday: “What we’re picking up is that it’s people with fixed jobs, not your poor man on the street. They’ve got vehicles, equipment, money, so it’s more for enrichment. These are the guys arranging with the buyers and sellers. But the teacher and librarian don’t want to get their hands dirty, don’t want blood on their hands. They will get a shooter from the local community or Mozambique, and they will do the transporting and selling of the horns.”
On New Year’s Eve, only three days after a gang of alleged rhino poachers arrested with a heavy-calibre hunting rifle and silencer were released from custody on R5 000 bail, another group of poachers was arrested at the same exclusive private game reserve in Northern Zululand.
After lying in wait in a 12hour ambush under searing heat conditions, at about 5.30pm members of Zululand’s Nyathi anti-poaching unit were alerted that the intruders had entered the reserve. They fired several rounds before arresting the alleged poachers.
When the bullets had stopped flying and the suspects were disarmed, they discovered that one of their captives was a schoolteacher from Ngwavuma. A 33-year old man from Mfekeyi near Hlabisa was also detained. Another suspect escaped.
The AK-47 assault rifle and 11 rounds of ammunition they recovered are believed to have been borrowed from a Mozambican border guard.
Already charged with illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition and in terms of the Firearms Control Act and illegal hunting, they will appear in Hluhluwe Magis-
‘R5 000 is not a deterrent. The message that is getting out is that crime pays’
trate’s Court today for a formal bail application.
A member of Nyathi antipoaching, who asked not to be identified, said: “We want further charges of conspiracy to hunt rhino – in terms of section 57 of Act 10 of 2004 (the National Environmental Management and Biodiversity Act) – to be added to the docket.
“The justice system is not working and is failing us. The anti-poaching units on the ground are working their butts off and risking their lives protecting rhinos against poaching, only to find the courts are giving those arrested a slap on the wrist and set them free on bail conditions that don’t even dent the pockets of the syndicates” he said.
Chris Galliers, chairman of the Game Rangers’ Association of Africa, said he was angry when he heard that the suspects arrested in December had been released on bail, and expressed concern that the syndicates and those with political connections to the alleged poaching incidents could be intimidating court officials. “R5 000 is not a deter- rent, not even close. The message that is getting out is that crime pays. How are we going to get on top of the poaching if the courts don’t deny bail and impose maximum sentences? That’s where it starts,” he said.
Madoda Gumede, 33, who had been freed on R5 000 bail only three days before the second incident, is a librarian in Hluhluwe and the nephew of the mayor of the Big 5/Hluhluwe municipality, CC Gumede. Jabulani Innocent Ndabandaba, 37, of Mduku, and Sgidi Ndabandaba, 33, of Nibela, were also released on bail.
Gumede is the brother of the local Mduku community’s tribal leader, Inkosi Gumede, and son of the late Simon Gumede, a former board mem- ber of Ezemvelo KwaZuluNatal Wildlife authority and former leader of the Mduku community.
The incident on New Year’s Eve was the third attack at Phinda Private Game Reserve in a month.
A black rhino fell under the poachers’ axe at the beginning of December.
Peter Rutsch, environmental lawyer and newly appointed director to the board at Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife, said: “There is an urgent need for political will at provincial, national and international levels to prosecute these serious illegal wildlife crimes with the seriousness they deserve.”
He said he would welcome a return of the environmental courts.