When Claire Jordaan’s sleep broke at 1am on July 25, she couldn’t shake off a deep sense of foreboding.

She got out of bed and made a cup of tea to try and calm herself, but that inexplicable feeling of uneasiness just wouldn’t go away.

So, Claire gathered her dogs at the back of her bakkie, grabbed a search light and went out to patrol on the Paulpietersburg private game reserve she runs with her husband, Professor Amo Jordaan (a well-known oncologist in NKZN).

She hadn’t gone too far from her house when she spotted a security guard who she immediately noticed was ‘in a state’.

“All he could say was, ‘Mam, three shots.’ I told him to get in and we drove a little further to where we could pick up cellphone reception and called for help,” said Claire.

Sadly, this was the moment Claire would realise her gut-instinct that something was amiss was warranted. Her beloved Martha, one of the two very first white rhinos she adopted onto the game reserve, the matriarch of the crash, was killed … Her horn hacked off by the poachers who gunned her down. It would appear that three shots were fired to end her life.

Claire later learned that the poachers had come up behind a shed, heavily armed with machine guns. They instructed the security guards on duty to lie on the ground, bound their hands with cable ties and covered their mouths with masking tape before taking their cellphones and firearms.

The poachers then lured Martha to them with a bale of lucerne and shot her dead as she approached, before hacking off her horn.

A joint effort by a private security company and law enforcement led to the arrest of three men in the surrounding forest. It is alleged that the men were in possession of illegal firearms and ammunition as well as a rhino horn at the time of their arrest.

Last Thursday, August 14, the three men, Simanga Mnguni (42), Betwell Baloye (27) and Muziwakhe Nkosi (38) appeared in the Vryheid District Court for a bail hearing. Because they were arrested on the Vryheid side of the game reserve, the men appeared in the Vryheid court on charges in terms of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act (NEMBA) for hunting without a permit, moving a threatened species without a permit, and possession of the rhino horn, as well as for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, in terms of the Firearm Controls Act.

Since the security guards were held at gunpoint on the Paulpietersburg side of the game reserve, there is a parallel investigation being conducted by police in Paulpietersburg. While, Mnguni, Baloye and Nkosi are being investigated as suspects in the kidnapping and armed robbery of the guards, they have not yet been charged in this regard.

On Thursday, state prosecutor, André Symington, requested that the bail hearing in the Vryheid court be postponed. He explained that police still needed to verify Nkosi’s address and the investigating officer is still awaiting the results of fingerprint analysis as well as the analysis of DNA taken from the rhino horn.

In court, Nkosi’s father, Amon, informed the presiding officer that, should he be released on bail, Nkosi will reside with him in Jozini.

According to Symington, in the course of the bail investigation, the state became aware that Baloye was arrested and charged twice before in connection with other incidents. The court cases in respect of each of these incidents are still underway. However, warrants of arrest had to be issued for Baloye in both cases when he absconded from court after being released on bail.

Mnguni’s lawyer confirmed, on his behalf, that he too has two pending matters in court.

Symington further informed the court that upon his arrest, Mnguni had provided police with a false address in Hluhluwe. He later told police he resides in Pretoria, but that address also proved to be false. Mnguni has since provided police with a third address, this time in Mpumalanga, which still needs to be verified.

“When police investigated the address in Hluhluwe which was provided by Mnguni, they discovered that his girlfriend resides there, not him. With regards to the address Baloye provided in Mpumalanga, the woman who lives there indicated to the investigating officer that she adopted Baloye but hasn’t seen nor heard from him in quite a while. Nkosi provided his address in court today and it will be verified by the next court date,” said Symington.

The defence attorneys of all three accused objected to Symington’s application for a postponement, accusing the state of ‘deliberately delaying’ the proceedings. The attorney’s further argued that the fingerprint and DNA analysis were not relevant to the bail application.

However, Symington countered that part of the submissions to be made in the bail hearing will directly deal with the strength of the state’s case. “The outstanding evidence is important to the strength of the state’s case and therefore relevant to the bail hearing,” said Symington.

While the presiding officer granted the postponement requested by Symington, she marked the matter as final, warning that the bail hearing has to proceed on the next court date or the case will be taken off the court roll.

The bail hearing is scheduled to commence today (August 20).

In the public gallery, Claire, an oncology nurse of 40 years, tearfully recalled adopting Martha in 2005, together with another white rhino, she named Arthur. Arthur and Martha were lovingly named after Claire’s mother who would often joke at times when she felt overwhelmed by her five children, that she didn’t know if she was Arthur or Martha.

“The conservation of rhino is very important to me,” said Claire, explaining her reason for introducing rhino onto her game reserve.

“This incident has traumatised the rhino on the reserve. They have completely lost trust in humans. They cannot tell if the person they see on the reserve is a criminal who has come to kill them or a guard who is there to protect them. They are especially lost without Martha who, as the matriarch, was the one who kept them together and sorted out their squabbles,” Claire added.

“This is so cruel and brutal and unnecessary, and it’s all about money and greed. We, who have animals, think about them differently. We see them play and laugh, and express love and joy. A rhino’s horn is important. It’s not just a wasted appendage. They use their horn to communicate, to mark their territory, and to defend themselves. These poachers have no conscience.”

Fear of having her remaining rhino targeted by poachers, led Claire to make the difficult decision to remove their horns. She feels this is the only way to protect their lives.

According to Environment Minister, Dr Dion George, 195 rhino were poached in the first half of 2025.

Non-profit organisation, Saving Rhinos, points out that, while 35 less rhinos were killed this year than in the same period last year, it still means that we are losing more than one rhino every day.

“Since the escalation of the rhino poaching crisis in 2011, more than 10 000 rhinos have been killed within South Africa’s borders. The worst year on record was 2014, when approximately 1 215 rhinos were lost, equating to one rhino killed every eight hours. Kruger National Park, once home to the largest rhino population, experienced a devastating 60% decline in rhino numbers. From 2021 to the present, poaching levels have remained alarmingly high, with between 400 and 500 rhinos killed each year. The province of KwaZulu-Natal has become a key poaching hotspot, accounting for nearly half of all rhino losses between 2021 and 2023,” states Project Rhino.

“If current trends continue, we risk the complete disappearance of rhinos from major national parks, with only small populations surviving in intensively protected areas. Recovery could take decades, if it remains possible at all. This is why sustained support for organisations working to protect rhinos is not just important, it is urgently critical.”

ALSO READ: Three suspected rhino poachers arrested near Paulpietersburg

The news provided to you in this link comes to you from the editorial staff of the Vryheid Herald, a sold newspaper distributed in the Vryheid area.