Pretoria: 27 October 2015 – Police detectives from the Kruger National Park Rhino Task Team have last week arrested two men, both in their thirties, for possession of unlicensed firearm, ammunition and dangerous weapon with an intention to commit crime. They were caught by the park’s rangers in the Satara area of the Kruger National Park, where they were apparently hunting rhino for their horns.
The two Mozambican nationals, Sipho Ngobeni and Samuel Ngulelo, aged 33 and 36 respectively, have already made their first appearance in the White Rivier Magistrate’s Court on the 22nd October 2015 and will return to the same court later this week.
Their arrests bring to 156 the number of people arrested in the various areas of the park in the past 12 months. Like the two suspects above, many of these suspects are facing charges of possession of unlicensed firearms, ammunition, dangerous weapons and trespassing.
Nearly all of these suspects are currently awaiting trial while in custody, while a negligible few have been granted bail.
The team, under the stewardship of Lieutenant General Vinesh Moonoo, the head of detectives in the South African Police Service, has been formed to investigate incidents of poaching of rhino in the Kruger National Park, which has been badly affected by poaching.
