Two Foreign Nationals Sentenced For Rhino Poaching

Today, the Acting National Head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, Major General Yoliswa Siyotula, applauded the Organised Crime Unit of the Hawks in Mpumalanga for securing two convictions against two rhino poachers.

Yesterday, the White River Periodical Court handed down an eight-year sentence to Alvao Fagustino Sifundza from Mozambique for rhino poaching. Sifundza, aged 31, was arrested in the Tshokwane area of the Kruger National Park on 12 April 2014 after a chase by the park's field rangers. His accomplice fled. He was found in possession of a high caliber hunting rifle, rounds of ammunition, a silencer, an axe and a number of items of clothing. Yesterday, the court sentenced him as follows: One year’s imprisonment for trespassing, five years’ imprisonment for the possession of unlicensed firearms and two years’ imprisonment for the unlawful possession of ammunition. The court further said that the sentence on the trespassing and unlawful possession of ammunition would run concurrently with the sentence of the possession of unlicensed firearms. Sifundza was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.

In another case of rhino poaching in the Nelspruit Regional court on Monday this week, a Vietnamese national, Ngoc Cuong Pham, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment and fined R1 million for dealing in and for being in possession of a rhino horn. Ngoc was also sentenced to another five years for racketeering, of which three years were suspended for five years. He was arrested with his 13 accomplices in Bedfordview in May 2012 after they were found to be in possession of a rhino horn. The case against the other accused has been postponed to 4 November 2014 for a trial date.

General Siyotula said: "We have a responsibility to protect our wildlife from people such as Sifundza and Ngoc, and to warn other poachers out there that we mean business."

Issued by:
South African Police Service

Six Suspected Rhino Poachers Arrested In Kruger National Park

The South African National Parks (SANParks) announced the arrest of six suspected poachers in the world famous Kruger National Park on Tuesday the 7th October 2014.

The first arrest took place in Kingfisherspruit when patrolling rangers made contact with three suspected poachers. They called for support and the SAPS Helicopter was despatched as well as the Special Operations Unit of the SANParks Rangers Corps. Three suspects were apprehended and found to be in possession of a .458 rifle, ammunition and an axe. In the second incident, rangers in the Crocodile Bridge Section made contact with three suspected poachers. They followed the spoor and called for Helicopter backup, the three suspects were then apprehended. They were in possession of a .375 hunting rifle, ammunition and an axe.

The park has been under tremendous pressure from illegal hunters and has already lost over 500 of these magnificent animals to poachers this year alone.

Congratulating his men on a job well done, the Commanding Officer SANParks, Major General (RET) Johan Jooste said he is glad that the dedication from his team is not wearing thin and that they continue making inroads. “Every individual we arrest, and all the weaponry we confiscate from the suspects, gives us more energy and hope that one day, we will be able to contain and start rolling back this onslaught,” concludes Jooste.

Issued by:
South African National Parks

On Safari With Robbie From 25 September 2014

25 September 2014

I collected my guests an proceeded onto Pretoriouskop camp where we had a brief rest before heading out to see what we could find.

We headed out on Napi where we spent a hour and a half with 7 elephant bulls who  at one stage where 5m away from our vehicle, they then walked parallel with us for over 5km. it was a superb sighting with ship mountain and the setting sun as a backdrop.  It was one of my best elephant sightings yet. Just before camp we got 2 male lions snoozing.

26 September 2014

Today we had phenomenal sightings of rhino with a total of 17 spotted. Along the sabie the elephants herds were prolific as well as the buffalo.

We also came across a hippo carcass by the river with 6 lions feeding on it. Suddenly a much larger male arrived on the scene and chased all the others off the carcass.

It has been great so far, we will see what awaits us next!

On the sundowner drive my guests had a amazing time spotting porcupine, genets, bushbabies, civet cat, hyena and two great sightings of the sabi river lion prides.

27 September 2014

Today we journeyed north, our destination was Tshokwane about 46km from Skukuza.

General game on the way was great including a herd of about 30 Kudu, a banded mongoos family was observed for 30 min, buffalo and elephant.

After breakfast at Tshokwane we carried on a little further north where we came across a 12 strong lion pride attempting to kill a zebra which they failed. The pride then joined by some 7 cubs who unbeknown to us had been sleeping in the river below. It was a fantastic sighting.

We drove slowly back to camp with excellent general game sightings and the highlight being a pack of wild dogs resting in the shade.

28 September 2014

Today the rain didn’t affect our sightings as we spotted superb leopard, rhino, buffalo and elephant. With one species short of the magnificent 7 we are hoping for a sighting of the slender feline (cheetah) tomorrow!

29 September 2014

Driving out this morning in pouring rain I was a little apprehensive about sightings but it turned out to be our best day! To sum it up we got 18 rhino, 3 herds of 200+ buffalo, 3 magnificent leopard sightings and elephants everywhere as well as brilliant bird sightings. To top it all at the end we saw our resident white buffalo right next to the road!

30 September 2014

If one believes in fate then it has occurred 2 days in a row. Due to the fact that my one guest had to move to another camp I have been leaving at different times for the safaris. Yesterday the leopard sighting was perfect timing and todays “operation cheetah” was no different. When my college called in a cheetah sighting we were still at breakfast. On route to the sighting it came across that the cheetah had gone! My heart sank and so did my guests. Suddenly 2km from the original sighting popped out 3 beautiful male cheetahs (known as the 3 brothers)  it was the last species for us to accomplish our “magnificent 7”  and to top it all off  for the first 30 minutes we had them all to ourselves. It was truly one of my best cheetah sightings of 19 years doing safaris in Kruger. Miraculously my guest Gary picked them up on return to camp 5 hours later where they had moved 3km north.

The day was so focused on the cheetah that we kind of forgot all our other magnificent sightings of elephant, buffalo, rhino, and a magnificent sable bull.

Timing wise today was epic!

31 September 2014  

Our final short morning drive was very relaxed and topped our birding list to 66! The guests left Kruger very happy having seen the magnificent 7 and had a fantastic time!