Three poachers plead guilty, sentenced by Skukuza Regional Court
The provincial police commissioner, Lt Gen Semakaleng Manamela, welcomed the decision to sentence three men for poaching regardless of awaited forensic results.
Sibusiso Mahlaule (29), George Manyise (30) and Rodrigues Ngobeni (34) did not escape the might of the law and were sentenced by the Skukuza Regional Court for poaching on Friday March 11.
The three were caught by field rangers in Kruger National Park on April 18, 2021. It was reported that the rangers, working at Pretoriuskop, had discovered some tracks that brought the presence of intruders to their attention.
They followed these tracks with the assistance of tracker dogs and a helicopter belonging to SANParks.
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The three men were cornered and apprehended, and certain items were found in their possession, which included a .375 H&H bolt-action rifle with a fitted silencer, as well as three cartridges for it.
The Skukuza police were notified about the incident and on their arrival, all three suspects were arrested and charged for trespassing and conspiracy to commit crime.
A charge of contravention of the Immigration Act was added upon Ngobeni after the police had established that he was from Mozambique and in South Africa illegally. The case was handed over to the experts in the field of stock theft, so the SAPS’ Stock Theft Unit Skukuza took over the investigation.
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The three accused decided to plead guilty. The court accepted their plea, however, they were not exempted from punishment. On the count of trespassing, the three accused were each sentenced to two years imprisonment. On the count of conspiracy to commit a crime, they were each sentenced to five years, and Ngobeni was sentenced to an additional eight years imprisonment for contravention of the Immigration Act.
“We applaud the good working relationship among the team of field rangers, the investigators, the prosecution team and the judiciary. We also hope that the sentence will serve as a lesson that, one way or another, there is punishment for lawbreakers,” said Manamela.
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