MBOMBELA – Hefty sentences were imposed on two rhino poachers, one of whom was a soldier in the South African National Defence Force, in the local Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.

The magistrate, Mr André Geldenhuys ordered that Michael Sithole (53) and Boet Mashego (56) spend 26 years in prison for the poaching of four rhinos in the Kruger National Park (KNP).

Sithole and Mashego were found guilty on 13 charges which include trespassing in the Kruger, for which they were sentenced to four years’ imprisonment; illegal hunting and killing of four rhinos (10 years), theft of rhino horns (six years) and the unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition (six years). Sentence was passed by Geldenhuys with senior state advocate, Ms Isabet Erwee, prosecuting for the state on 23 charges.

The charges that the two were convicted on related to two poaching incidents on September 22 and 25 in 2010.

Exhibits before court during the trial included various photo albums and sketched plans of the crime scenes, ammunition cases and ballistic reports.

Geldenhuys found the four state witnesses, including two KNP rangers and two members of Kruger’s Environmental Crime Investigations (ECI) unit to be completely reliable witnesses. He accepted the evidence they presented and their versions of what had happened during and before the arrest of the accused on September 25. They were apprehended at Stolsnek with two fresh rhino horns in their possession.

Both Sithole and Mashego pleaded not guilty, with Sithole claiming he was in the park looking for muti and Mashego alleging he was searching for his lost cattle. However, Geldenhuys found them to be unreliable witnesses and that their versions of events were highly improbable.

“Things don’t just happen like that at that time of the day,” he said.

Both accused indicated in their versions of events that they were framed by the ECI. They were in fact their own worst enemy because, ironically, when Sithole tried to escape from the crime scene by climbing through the fence with the horns in his backpack, one of them got stuck in the fence and prevented him from fleeing.

He looked to his accomplice to help him when the two rangers asked the poachers to stop before firing two shots. Sithole and Mashego fired back.

During this altercation the latter was shot in his left shoulder.

Geldenhuys pointed out that the crimes took place in 2010 when methods like removing the horn with a blunt knife was still very much in practice.

When passing sentence he remarked on this modus operandi and branded it as a “callous and cruel way of showing total disrespect for the animal.”

He also emphasised that copies of service rosters of Mashego’s former employer, the SANDF, as submitted by Mashego to show he was at work at the time of the crime, could not be regarded as reliable evidence.

The men were also charged for a poaching incident in June that year. However, Geldenhuys ruled that there was a lack of evidence relating to these charges. He ruled that the state could not prove their case beyond all reasonable doubt.

During sentencing Geldenhuys concluded that he took the fact into consideration that the accused are both unemployed and have extended families to support. He also considered their advanced age and that they are first offenders.

Erwee pointed out that rhino poaching is escalating. In 2007, 13 rhinos were poached while 908 were poached in 2014. She pleaded that this be taken into consideration during sentencing so that anyone thinking poaching is a lucrative business, be discouraged.

“These offences were very violent, with firearms being used. The accused did not care how much pain they were putting these animal through.”

Geldenhuys remarked that no remorse was shown by the accused and it was clear they did not care that rhinos would soon be extinct or that they were destroying a part of our natural heritage.

After being sentenced Sithole and Meshego were led to the holding cells. They did not show any emotion and did not glance back to the room filled with very few supporters.

Investigating officer WO Willie Broodryk was commended for a sterling investigation.

Also read: History made with record sentence – another victory in the war on poaching by Broodryk and Erwee.