Court moves to protect rhinos

FIFTY-four rhinos set to be transported from a private game reserve in KwaZuluNatal to a hunting farm in Northern Cape today may have been saved from slaughter after the High Court in Pietermaritzburg ruled on Friday that they not be harmed.

Businessman Marthinus Coetzer, the co-owner of Magudu Game Reserve near Pongola, northern KwaZuluNatal, filed an urgent application demanding that the rhinos, worth R20-million, not be moved to Wintersvlei, a hunting safari farm near Kimberley.

In a court affidavit, Hendrik Jakobus Greeff, Magudu’s majority shareholder, said the move was being made to protect them from poachers.

More than 50 rhinos have been killed for their horns in KwaZulu-Natal this year.

But Greeff confirmed in court papers that bulls might be hunted later on.

Coetzer said he had established that Greeff’s intentions involved selling the rhinos to hunters.

“I was initially informed that the rhinos would only be captured, dehorned, micro-chipped and relocated to other premises,” he said.

“I have established that various professional hunters and outfitters have already made arrangements . . . to hunt the rhinos.

“Mr Greeff has obviously orchestrated this,” said Coetzer.

Wintersvlei’s owner, Wiaan van der Linde, denied that the rhinos had already been earmarked for hunting.

“The hunting of bulls does indeed sometimes occur. This is, however, controlled . . . in the interest of proper game ranch management,” he said.

He said if the rhinos were hunted in future, he would retain 15% of the profit and the rest would go to Magudu Game Reserve.

The case has been postponed to August 30.