Decade-long poaching case drags on amid more rhino deaths
AFTER almost a decade the case against alleged rhino poacher Muntogokwakhe Israel Khoza (49) and his co accused has not yet been finalised.
August 26 will mark 10 years since Khoza was nabbed red-handed with two white rhino horns near HluhluweiMfolozi Park (HiP).
The case against Khoza and his co accused, Mduduzi Xulu (50) Ayanda Buthelezi (39), who have all pleaded not guilty to the crime, was expected to proceed to trial when they appeared at the Durban Magistrate’s Court two weeks ago.
This was however not the case as yet another delay came in the form of logistical issue pertaining to authorisation required to allow a Legal Aid defence attorney to be paid for his services in a different magisterial district.
In August last year the ZO reported extensively on the case when a warrant for Khoza’s arrest was issued by magistrate Logan Naidoo at the Richards Bay Magistrate’s Court after he absconded from his court appearance.
A fourth accused, Sifiso Ngema, absconded earlier in the case and has to date not been traced.
The accused are facing at least six counts relating to the illegal poaching of a white rhino at the iMfolozi Game Reserve in Hluhluwe in 2009, as well as a further two counts relating to the possession of illegal firearms and ammunition.
According to the State, Khoza - who is from Ulundi - and his accomplices were arrested in the Ocilwane area, near HiP after their bakkie was stopped and searched.
They were found in possession of a .303 rifle and two freshly-severed rhino horns, which were later linked to a butchered rhino carcass via DNA.
Following a number of court appearances after his initial arrest, Khoza was granted bail.
Conviction
Four years later, while still out on bail and with the trial being plagued with delays, as the accused at every opportunity shuffled in new attorneys - who then needed to be briefed on previous proceedings - Khoza was arrested for yet another case of rhino poaching.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), on 15 March 2013, Kingsley police stopped a vehicle driven by Khoza in the early hours of the morning.
Khoza and the passenger in the vehicle, Thulani Mbatha, were found in possession of two blood stained rhino horns, estimated to be worth more than R500 000, and which would later be linked to a rhino which had been shot two days before at a reserve in Louwsberg, between Pongola and Vryheid.
This time justice was quick to be served and a year later both men were convicted for being in possession of rhino horn and were both sentenced to six years imprisonment.
The NPA said they were uncertain as to where Khoza had been imprisoned and whether he had served his entire sentence, and it can only be presumed that he was let out on parole, as his six year sentence would only be up in March 2020.
Khoza and his co accused will appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Monday, 18 Feb.