Kirkwood cycad poachers jailed for 10 years and fined

THE six men arrested last year for stealing R600 000 worth of endangered cycads were each sentenced to 10 years behind bars by the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

A specialist investigator welcomed the sentencing yesterday, hoping it would deter syndicates that recruit poachers to steal cycads.

Munyaradzi Mutondora, 34, Clifford Nongwe, 32, Stewart Magunje, 37, Simba Madziwa, 31, Michael Msekiwa, 35 and Daniel Sithole, 39, all originally from Zimbabwe, stole the cycads from a farm near Kirkwood last year.

The men were sentenced to an effective 10 years direct imprisonment for violating the Nature Conservation Ordinance.

They were also fined R60 000, suspended for five years.

All six poachers were caught redhanded during a joint sting operation involving Kirkwood farmers, the Department of Environmental Affairs’ Green Scorpions and the police.

Officials said the men were monitored as they camped on the secluded farm for days.

When they left under cover of darkness, officials pulled them over.

All 81 cycads – some more than 150 years old – were found on the back of their bakkie.

Inspector Etienne Kitching, of the Green Scorpions special investigations unit, who was in court yesterday, said this was one of the Eastern Cape’s harshest sentences for cycad poaching.

“We are identifying the buyers of the cycads,” he said.

“There is a massive demand for these plants overseas, which is why people are recruited to uproot and transport them.”

The six men were meant to transport the cycads to a buyer in Gauteng.