Judgment gives game park new shot at recovering escaped buffalo from neighbour

THE Supreme Court of Appeal has given the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency a second shot at recovering a valuable herd of Cape buffalo that crossed from one of its reserves onto land owned by former Springbok rugby player and hunting safari operator Hennie le Roux. He claimed ownership of the buffalo from the department’s Thomas Baines Reserve near Grahamstown after the herd crossed the drought-depleted Settlers Dam in 2010 and settled on his adjacent hunting mecca, Crown River Safaris.

The dam, which supplies much of Grahamstown with drinking water, had always formed a natural barrier between the two properties until the 2010 drought.

When it rained again in 2011, the dam filled up, leaving Le Roux the happy owner of 20 new buffalo. The department took him to court to recover the buffalo, valued back then at well over R4-million.

In 2016, the Grahamstown High Court ruled that the Game Theft Act specified that ownership of game was only protected when game was held on land that was “sufficiently enclosed”.

But it said the land would only be considered to be sufficiently enclosed when it had been issued a formal “certificate of sufficient enclosure” by the office of the provincial premier. Thomas Baines had no such certificate. The judgment meant the department could not assert its ownership over the buffalo.

The department last year took the issue on appeal to the SCA, which this week ruled in its favour. It found that just because the reserve had no formal certificate indicating the land was adequately enclosed, it did not mean that it was not.

The matter will revert to the Grahamstown High Court, where the department must now lead evidence proving the land was, in fact, adequately enclosed.