Poaching accused run out of funds

The three men accused of crimes related to the poaching of 13 Eastern Cape rhino have run out of funds for their defence.

But senior counsel advocate Terry Price, who appears for Jabulani Ndlovu, 40, Forget Ndlovu, 37, and Sikhumbuzo Ndlovu, 38, says he intends acting pro bono for the men as the trial draws to its end.

“I don’t have an instructing attorney as the finances have dried up,” he informed judge Jeremy Pickering on Monday.

He was referring to attorney Alwyn Griebenow, who had terminated his mandate.

Price asked the court for a further postponement as he had not managed to complete his heads of argument in the complicated matter. Both he and the prosecutor, senior state advocate Buks Coetzee, were scheduled to argue on Monday.

Coetzee indicated he was ready to argue and handed in his heads of argument. Price handed in his but indicated they were incomplete.

In his argument, he must deal with a complicated web of circumstantial evidence, including complex cellphone records, which Coetzee argues ties the three men directly to at least 13 rhino poaching incidents in the province between 2013 and 2016.

The three men were allegedly caught red-handed in a raid on a chalet at the Makana Resort in 2016 with a 10.27kg freshly harvested rhino horn valued at R1m, a bloody saw, .22 dart gun and tranquilliser darts, M99 tranquilliser, cellphones and sim cards.

The horn was linked via DNA to a poaching incident on the same day at the Bucklands Reserve near Makhanda.

The dart gun, says Coetzee, was linked via ballistic evidence to several other scenes.

The cellphones were linked to the three accused via usage patterns, selfies and sim cards.

In turn, evidence established that all the phones pinged off cellphone towers in the area of all 13 rhino poaching incidents on the days they happened and in other poaching incidents for which the three have not yet been charged.

He said cellphone evidence established that in every single incident, Forget would travel from his home in George to Port Elizabeth where the other two were based. Despite all three owning cars, Jabulani would hire a car.

Sikhumbuzo would drop the other two off at their poaching destination and he would drive around or wait at a nearby town till they were ready to be picked up.

Multiple cellphone communications would take place between the three before, during and after hunts.

After each incident, the three men would head back to Port Elizabeth from where Jabulani would immediately fly to Gauteng and visit the Bruma area in eastern Johannesburg where, Coetzee argued, he would dispose of the horn.

The matter will be argued in full on March 11. Pickering said he would try to deliver judgment that week.