MBOMBELA – One of two men accused of poaching a rhino, is actually a hairdresser. He doesn’t know where the Kruger National Park (KNP) is and was surprised when a police chopper with a dog as fellow passenger interrupted his walk to South Africa on January 19, 2013.
This was the testimony of Mr Andelius Mukwebe in the Nelspruit Regional Court on Wednesday. He is one of two suspects arrested for the alleged poaching of a white rhino on that date. He relayed an interesting version of the day’s events that led to his arrest on that fateful day.
Lowvelder previously reported that Mukwebe and Mr Jeremano Thive were apprehended in the Nwanetsi area of the KNP.
Authorities who had been attending to the poaching scene of a black rhino in Tshokwane were alerted that another incident had taken place in the Nwanetsi area. A white rhino carcass was found and rangers traced the whereabouts of Mukwebe and Thive with the assistance of tracking dogs of the German Malinois breed, as was testified. They face charges of contravening the Immigration Act, and three charges relevant to illegally entering the park and poaching.
Mukwebe rose to the witness stand and presented his version of events. “I was on my way from Mozambique to South Africa to look for employment,” he started. “While walking to South Africa, I heard a chopper. Thive and I were pointed at with firearms and we were put in the chopper. There was a dog in the chopper as well. We were taken to a place with a safe. We were then taken to the police station.”
He was questioned by his attorney, Mr Daniel Mabunda, about his knowledge of his whereabouts at the time of his arrest. “I don’t know if I was in a park when it happened. I was in South Africa. I know that the Kruger National Park exists, but I do not know where it is. Wherever I travelled between Mozambique and South Africa, I never saw any signing stipulating that I was in a national park. Eish, I can’t even tell if this park and South Africa are two different places or one and the same place,” he declared under oath.
According to Mukwebe, the state witnesses’ allegations that he and Thive were nabbed after they had been traced with the assistance of a tracking dog named Killer, were untrue. “The dog was in the chopper when they put us in the chopper. I did not see the dog outside.” “We were not informed of the reason for our arrest,” the Mozambican continued. “I could not understand the Shangaan dialect the police were speaking.”
Senior state advocate Ms Isabet Erwee questioned him about how he had gained access to South Africa in the past. “I entered South Africa once previously by bribing an officer at the Ressano Garcia Border Post. This time around, I did not have the money. So I climbed through the fence. “The fence had a hole in it – I could fit through this big hole. There was no sign saying that I must not climb through the fence.”
Mukwebe then confirmed that he could not read English.
When confronted with the testimony that he had been taken into custody at Nwanetsi, which was far away from Ressano Garcia where he insisted he had been walking when the chopper ambushed him, Mukwebe’s replied, “I have no idea. I cannot tell where I was or what was in what area.” He further testified that he had never seen any animals.
“I did see trees – one big tree and two small ones,” he recalled.
The case was postponed to April 14 for further evidence to be led in favour of Mukwebe and Thive’s case.
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