Rhino poaching attempts foiled
CLAMPING down on rhino poaching, Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife on Monday announced the arrest of three suspected poachers in the space of two days.
Significantly, the arrests came before the would-be poachers could kill any rhinos at Ezemvelo's flagship Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park (HiP).
The successful operation brings to five the number of suspected poachers arrested inside HiP this year.
Last Monday, HiP field rangers and the K9 unit arrested Vusi Mdluli from Mfekayi area in Mtubatuba after picking him up on the Ezemvelo surveillance camera.
Mdluli saw the chopper that was launched, and decided to make a run for it.
He took off his T-shirt in an attempt to blend in with the bush, but the dogs had already spotted him and were on top of him before he could escape.
He appeared at Hlabisa Magistrate's Court last Tuesday.
Last Wednesday, two more poachers were arrested with the assistance of the K9 unit.
The two had recently travelled from Mpumalanga province and were staying in a house a stone's throw from HiP.
The proximity of the house to the park gave the men a vantage point to observe everything going on behind the fence.
Not only were they able to monitor the field rangers on foot patrol, but they could also scan the movement of rhinos inside the park.
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Ezemvelo communications manager Musa Mntambo said the field rangers who were on the early morning foot patrol noticed footprints and alerted the K9 unit whose members followed their tracks.
This led them near to where the suspects were hiding.
The suspects heard the rangers approaching and ran in different directions.
They left a bag and some other items on the ground, but fled with their .375 rifle.
This called for immediate air support and additional assistance from the Wildlife College K9 unit, which is training the Ezemvelo K9 unit at HiP.
The two suspects, Sizwe Tivane and Samkele Sithole, were arrested that afternoon and were found in possession of a .375 rifle.
They appeared in court last Friday, and their case was postponed to Monday, 12 June.
‘Our improved and random deployment of field rangers, as well as the presence of Saps inside HiP, make it difficult for would-be poachers to fully understand our movements,' said Ezemvelo acting CEO Ntsikelelo Dlulane.
'The K9 unit is also proving to be a welcome addition to our fight against rhino poachers. I trust these recent arrests will provide us with enough information to make more arrests.'
HiP has been under siege since the beginning of the year. At times, the park has had to deal with three to five different groups of poachers entering the park from various directions at more or less the same time.
To date, 123 rhinos have been poached in KZN in both public and private game reserves.
Three would-be rhino poachers arrested inside HiP before carrying out their illegal deed