Three men on poaching rap to bid for bail again

THREE men charged with allegedly poaching a rhino for its horn at a game farm near Grahamstown last year will make a second bid for bail next month.

Police allege they caught Jabulani Ndlovu, 39, Forget Ndlovu, 36, and Sikhumbuzo Ndlovu, 37, in a chalet at Grahamstown’s Makana Resort last year with a 10.27kg freshly harvested rhino horn, valued at close to R1million.

They also recovered a saw, gun and M99 tranquilliser.

The police bust happened shortly after a white rhino bull was poached at nearby Buckland’s Game Reserve.

Several cellphones and SIM cards were also seized. The trio had been travelling in two rental cars.

Police have alleged the men are likely part of a large and sophisticated poaching syndicate.

The three men, who are not related, failed in their first bail bid last year before Grahamstown magistrate Ntsoki Moni.

They are now taking her decision on appeal to the high court.

In her bail judgment, Moni ruled that on the Bucklands poaching case alone they faced at least four charges involving poaching a protected species and faced stiff prison sentences if convicted.

She said they had also been linked to other incidents of rhino poaching and there was a warrant of arrest out for them in Limpopo.

The state, which contends all three were illegally in the country, had a strong case against the men who had been caught with evidence.

She said the men had failed to show it was in the interest of justice that dart they be released on bail.

Police Captain Morne Viljoen of the endangered species unit in Jeffrey’s Bay last year told the court that some 76 rhino had been poached in the province since 2009.

About 19 had been poached in 2016 alone. This had placed the remaining national population of just 21 000 rhino under severe threat of extinction.

Viljoen alleged that his investigations into 20 similar cases involving 40 rhino poached in the province revealed that the three men had “been responsible for a number, if not all, these poaching incidents”.

Other evidence, he said, included tracing activity of their cellphones, and tracking vehicles rented by them during these poaching incidents.

In their notice of appeal the three contended that Moni had too easily accepted the contents of Viljoen’s affidavit, while ignoring their own.

She had not supported her contention that they were a flight risk and had over-emphasised the strength of the state’s case against the three men.

They said she had allowed the anger of South African citizens against rhino poachers to cloud her mind and allow emotion to rule her decisions in a country where people charged with more serious crimes such as robbery and rape often got bail.

The trio’s Grahamstown attorney Mark Nettelton yesterday said the bail appeal would hopefully be argued on April 6.

Senior state advocate Buks Coetzee said the actual criminal trial had been postponed to April 13 in the regional court at which time a trial date would be set for hearing in the Grahamstown High Court. — TMG