Alleged illegal hunting activities upset locals
Earlier this week Corridor Gazette reported on the sale and hunting of game on private property. A disgruntled resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, informed the paper of this trade which caught locals off guard.
MALALANE – Earlier this week Corridor Gazette reported on the sale and hunting of game on private property. A disgruntled resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, informed the paper of this trade which caught locals off guard.
According to a farm manager, Mr JJ Holtzhausen, farmers had legal permits to hunt game that might damage crops. “These permits have restrictions. They may not shoot and sell as they please, unless they have the correct documentation,” said Holtzhausen. The Department of Economic Development, Environment and Tourism’s (Dedet), senior manager of communications Mr Kholofelo Nkambule, said that if people were legally hunting on exemption farms, they were permitted to sell the meat in terms of the Mpumalanga Nature Conservation Act 10 of 1998 Sec 23 and Sec 37.
The Act states the following:
• Section 23: Sale of Game:
(1) Subject to the provisions of this Act, no person shall sell game, unless he or she is the holder of a permit which authorises him or her to do so, provided that
(a) the owner of land may sell live game, or the meat (whether fresh, processed or cured, including biltong or carcass of game which he or she has hunted or caught in terms of this Act on land, of which he or she is the owner, or cause it to be sold at a public sale;
(b) a butcher who is the holder of a licence issued in terms of this Act may sell the meat or a carcass sold to him or her in terms of paragraph (a);
(c) a trader may, on the premises on which he or she conducts business, sell biltong sold to him or her in terms of paragraph (a) or (b).
(2) Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with subsection (1) shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years, or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
(3) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (2), any person convicted of a contravention of subsection (1) in respect of specially protected game shall be liable to a fine or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 10 years, or to both a fine and such imprisonment, and to a fine not exceeding three times the commercial value of the wild animal in respect of which the offence was committed.
• Section 37: Exemption to hunt, catch or sell game:
(1) Where land is enclosed by a fence, wall, natural boundary or other obstruction or any combination of such fence, wall, natural boundary or obstruction in such a manner that game on land outside such enclosed land, cannot readily gain access thereto and that game cannot readily escape from the land so enclosed, the responsible member may, on the written application of the owner of the land, exempt
(a) the owner
(b) any other person indicated by the owner in the application, in writing, from ail or any of the provisions of this Act applicable to the hunting, catching, or sale of game in respect of the hunting, catching or sale of the species of game referred to in the exemption on the land so enclosed.
(2) The holder of an exemption contemplated in subsection (1), may
(a) grant permission in writing to any other person to hunt, catch or sell, subject to the provisions of the exemption, the species of game referred to in the exemption on the land contemplated therein
(b) authorise any other person to assist with the catching of the game referred to in the exemption on the land contemplated therein.
(3) A permission contemplated in subsection (2) shall contain
(a) the name and residential address of the person granting it
(b) the date on which it is granted
(c) a definition of the land contemplated in the exemption
(d) the name and residential address of the person to whom it is granted;
(e) particulars of the number, species and sex of game which may be hunted, caught or sold
(f) the date on which or period during which the game may be hunted, caught or sold
(g) the signature of the person
(i) granting it
(ii) to whom it is granted.
(4) The holder of a permission contemplated in Subsection (2) may, in accordance with the particulars contained therein and subject to the provisions of the exemption contemplated in Subsection (1), hunt, catch or sell the game referred to in the permission on the land defined therein.
(5) The holder of a permission contemplated in Subsection (2) shall carry it with him or her when he or she hunts, catches or sells game there under.
(6) Any person who contravenes or fails to comply with Subsection (5) shall be guilty of an offence and liable on conviction to a fine or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years or to both a fine and such imprisonment.
“However, in terms of the Meat Safety Act enforced by department of veterinary services, there are more restrictions regarding the sale of venison, but I cannot comment on that,” Nkambule explained.
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