Sibusiso Mahlaule (29), George Manyise (30) and Rodrigues Ngobeni (34) were sentenced by the Skukuza Regional Court for poaching on Friday March 11.

Their sentences eminate from an incident in which the three were caught by field rangers in the Kruger National Park on April 18, 2021.

It is said that the rangers, working at Pretoriuskop Section, discovered something sinister which raised suspicions of the presence of intruders. They followed some tracks with the assistance of tracker dogs as well as a SANParks helicopter.

It was not long before the field rangers spotted the trio. The suspects were cornered and apprehended. There were items found in their possession, which included a .375 H&H bolt action rifle with a fitted silencer, as well as three cartridges of a .375 H&H.

The Skukuza police were notified about the incident and on their arrival, the suspects were arrested and charged for trespassing, as well as for conspiracy to commit crime.

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Meanwhile a charge of contravention of the Immigration Act was added upon Ngobeni after the police had established that he is from Mozambique and was in South Africa illegally. The Stock Theft Unit of the Skukuza SAPS then took over the investigation.

The accused were subsequently brought to court and while the probe was ongoing, in which detectives were still waiting for the forensic outcome in their case, they decided to plead guilty. The court accepted their plea, however, they were not exempted from punishment.

On the count of trespassing, the accused were each sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. On the count of conspiracy to commit a crime, they were each sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. Ngobeni was sentenced to an additional eight years’ imprisonment for contravention of the Immigration Act.

The Mpumalanga SAPS commissioner, Lt Gen Semakaleng Manamela, said people should continue to obey the laws of the country, including the laws that have been put in place to protect nature. “We applaud the excellent relationship that exists between the team of field rangers, the investigators, the prosecution and the judiciary. We hope that the sentence will serve as a lesson that, one way or another, there is punishment for lawbreakers.”