Suspected rhino poachers in court!!

Polokwane - Five men accused of possession of a rhino horn appeared in the Bela Bela Magistrate's Court on Thursday, the Hawks said.

The matter was postponed to February 18 for a formal bail application, said spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko.

Petrus Setshedi, John Chauke, Aubrey Maluleka, Tebogo Mmole, and Sekanka Madimetsa were arrested on Tuesday. The men, aged between 23 and 34, were caught during what was supposed to be a rhino horn transaction between them and an undercover buyer. The horn appeared to have been cut off an adult rhino months before. Two suspected rhino poachers, arrested last week after a shootout in which two other suspected poachers were killed in northern KwaZulu-Natal, will remain behind bars. ASunday Tribune report notes that Moses Sibisi (43) and Jackson Sithole (42) appeared in the Ubombo Magistrate's Court on Friday and were remanded in custody until they stand trial later this year. Sibisi and Sithole were arrested after police shot and killed two of their alleged cohorts who had been trying to enter the Phinda Private Game Reserve. The men had allegedly opened fire on police using a hunting rifle and were felled by members of the police's special task force who were on patrol. The arrest of Sithole and Sibisi, and the killing of their comrades, was lauded as a hammer blow in the fight against rhino poaching in the country. The report says the gang, understood to have been run as a sophisticated criminal enterprise, may be linked to as many as 30 different cases of illegal rhino poaching across SA.

The fight against rhino poaching was given a significant boost when a poacher was sentenced to an effective five-year jail term.
Hans Skhosana and his co-accused Collen Buthelezi appeared in the Lehurutshe Magistrate’s Court on Thursday last week facing rhino poaching charges.The two were arrested after they hunted and killed rhino in Botsalano Game Reserve, near Ramatlabama.Skhosana pleaded guilty to the charges and was slapped with 10 years’ imprisonment, five of which were wholly suspended.He was also sentenced to five years for possession of an unlicensed firearm and two years for possession of ammunition, but these two sentences would run concurrently with the main sentence.
Accused number two Buthelezi insisted that he wanted his own day in court. His case will be heard before the same court on March 26.
The delay was meant to give Buthelezi a chance to apply for legal assistance from the Legal Aid Board, after his attorney recused himself from the case. The court also had the case of five other accused, who were nabbed for poaching incidents at the same game reserve last year.
Their case would also be heard on March 26. Three of the accused are in custody while the other two were released on bail.Manager for protected areas at the North West Parks and Tourism Board Eric Madamalala said the conviction and sentencing of Skhosana was a breakthrough in their fight against poaching.“As custodians of Botsalano Game Reserve, the NWPTB is pleased with the sentencing of accused number one, even though we had wished for a harsher sentence.“It is the first time that a rhino poaching case has registered a satisfactory outcome.“This is a very exciting development in the history of the province, to have a sentence handed out in relation to game poaching,” he said.The Board chief executive officer Allan Losaba expressed hope that the conviction would deter other would-be poachers from going forward.“The Board Resource Security Unit will continue to attend these cases in order to gather more intelligence on rhino poaching.“We hope that this sentence will assist us with other rhino poaching cases which we are dealing with, and that it will send a message to other poachers who are still at large,” he said. Community members living close to Botsalano Game Reserve received praise for coming to court and showing their commitment to stop the scourge of rhino poaching in the province.