Three men facing charges of conspiring to poach rhinos pleaded not guilty on Monday, day one of proceedings under way in the Makhanda high court in the Eastern Cape’s third case based on conspiracy to poach.
Shona and XiTswa translators are in court for the two Zimbabweans and one Mozambican, who were arrested near Bedford on November 26 2020.
According to the indictment, they intended to poach rhinos at the Ezulu Game Reserve between Bedford and Makhanda.
Kenneth Chigaweni, 26, Thomas Joao Machele, 53, and Amos Ncube, 44 are jointly charged on five counts: under the Riotous Assemblies Act’s common purpose provision, statutory conspiracy to commit theft of rhino horn; under the National Environmental Management Biodiversity Act (NEMBA) with the Riotous Assemblies Act, statutory conspiracy to commit a restricted activity involving rhinoceros; unlawful possession of a prohibited firearm; unlawful possession of ammunition; unlawful entering and remaining in South Africa.
Senior counsel Buks Coetzee has been leading evidence, with objections and requests for clarification from Legal Aid advocate Vusi Sojada for Chigaweni; private advocate Zama Somayele under instruction of Legal Aid for Machele, and Charles Stamper of Charles Stamper Attorneys for Ncube.
State witnesses include two police officers who conducted the roadblock where the men were arrested, Captain Mornay Viljoen, who is head of the SA Police Service’s Jeffreys Bay-based stock theft and endangered species unit, SAPS forensic and ballistic experts and a home affairs official.
According to the indictment, the three men, two of whom are in SA illegally, “associated with each other in a common design ... as a team of hunters and smugglers ... in the execution of a common purpose to shoot and kill rhinoceros and steal rhinoceros horns to supply and sell to the illicit black market trade for personal profit”.
The court heard this week that among the items seized in the November 2020 roadblock had been an unlicensed .375 calibre rifle with a silencer and ammunition, a knife, saw, axe, slasher, torch and two rolls of tin foil in various backpacks.
These items, the indictment says, are the tools necessary to remove, conceal and convey the stolen horn.
Rhino conservation received a major boost in September 2022 with the Gqeberha sentencing of the Chitlongo Three and the Makhanda sentencing of the Chitiyo Six
All were convicted on charges of conspiring to poach rhino.
These were the first convictions and sentencings achieved under a combination of legislation from the Riotous Assemblies Act, National Environmental Management Act and Firearms Act.
It gave SA lawmakers a powerful tool to pursue suspects who had often escaped prosecution in the past because of a lack of evidence.
In September 2022, the Chitiyo Six were handed hefty sentences of between 16 and 20 years.
Five of them escaped from custody at the Makhanda Correctional Facility in October 2022.
All were recaptured after various periods ranging from three days to six months.
They finally appeared together in the Makhanda high court again, for sentencing, on Wednesday June 14 2023.
By midday on Thursday, both police officers involved in the arrests of Chigaweni, Machele and Ncube had testified and been cross-examined.
Viljoen, too, had testified and was due to be cross-examined on Thursday afternoon.
The case is set down for this week only and it is not clear whether the defendants will testify during this sitting.
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