Local newsNews
Margate man facing rhino horn charges back in court
The South Coast man is expected to make another appearance in court next month.
Wade van Staden (31) of Margate, who was arrested for being in possession of a white rhino horn in 2020, appeared again in the Pietermaritzburg Regional Court on Tuesday this week.
The case was postponed to March this year.
Van Staden has made numerous court appearances since his arrest.
The horn found in his possession at the time was valued at R1.2-million.
He was arrested by members of the Pietermaritzburg K9 unit and the flying squad during a police operation in Pietermaritzburg.
The police members were conducting a joint operation on the N3 freeway at Ohrtmann Road when they stopped a black BMW, in which they found the rhino horn, weighing 1,2kg.
He was charged and appeared in court, being granted bail of R10 000.
In other rhino news, the Citizen has recently reported that, despite a reported decrease in rhino poaching in 2021 compared to the pre-Covid period in 2019, the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) has noted an uptick in private reserve poaching.
This was revealed by the department in the latest rhino poaching statistics released on Tuesday.
A total of 451 rhino were poached in South Africa last year – 327 within government reserves, and 124 on private property.
HAVE YOUR SAY
At Caxton, we employ humans to generate daily fresh news, not AI intervention. Happy reading!
