Savage killing of rhino shocks politicians
By 3 February 2015 54 rhino has been poached in Kruger National Park and 53 had their horns removed
SKUKUZA – Information on planned poaching activities should be collected and acted upon, before suspects can embark on these deadly excursions.
This was the opinion voiced by the chairman of the parliamentary portfolio committee on police, Mr Francois Beukman.
The committee visited the Kruger National Park (KNP) this week and took part in discussions on the progress made in the fight against poaching.
“SAPS intelligence services should be able to infiltrate and neutralise whatever plans the poachers might have even before they get implemented, especially seeing that they recruit locals to carry out these plans,” Beukman said.
“Be proactive and not only reactive,” Ms Diane Kohler Barnard, member of parliament and whip for the Democratic Alliance (DA), added.
She has been in the senior position of shadow minister of the SAPS since 2006.
Kohler Barnard also added that the SAPS intelligence system needed to immerse itself among the people residing in respective communities, so that it was able to gather intelligence useful for the curbing of poaching activities.
The committee also visited a poaching scene where the police’s forensic team gathered evidence. The carcass was that of a rhino which was poached near Pretoriuskop on Sunday.
The whip of the committee, Mr Jerome Maake, reacted with shock at the scene of the crime. “It’s a black rhino and the treatment dished out by the poachers to this rhino, is unthinkable! “They hacked off his hind legs and then broke his spine with axes! They possibly removed the horn even before this animal was dead!
“China and Vietnam should realise that every horn from a South African rhino represents a slaughtered and mutilated animal.”
The committee visited other police units in the province, including the Hazyview Public Order Policing Unit and Nelspruit Police Station, before returning to Cape Town.
This visit to the anti-poaching unit in KNP has meant a lot to Gen Johan Jooste and his team stationed in Skukuza.
Since the beginning of 2015, 54 rhino have been poached in Kruger alone.
