The hunter of rhino poachers, Dr Div de Villiers, 62, arrives in a bakkie loaded with boxes of his latest book.
IziNdlovu: The Story of South Africa’s greatest rhino poaching case, is co-authored by leading Eastern Cape legal journalist and senior Daily Dispatch writer Adrienne Carlisle.
The book is flying whenever De Villiers stands up to address audiences, such as the intimate and soulful 2-12th Avenue house concert venue where he sold 15 copies to local live music lovers after being invited by organiser and musician Dalena Mostert to give an introduction.
His next gig, with Carlisle, is at Gqeberha’s Bayworld on Wednesday, and on December 9 he is in East London at the Nahoon Estuary Nature Reserve at 5.30pm.
The New Voices published-176 pager is penned in a pleasing mix of De Villiers’ frank and local style and Carlisle’s incisive and riveting court reporting.
The bookshop price is about R350.
The Ndolvu poacher gang led a six-year long murderous charge from 2010 to 2016 against provincial rhinos, taking down 13 rhinos in 10 incidents in which they used large rifles and tranquilliser darts.
De Villiers believes they were responsible for many more attacks where nerve-rich rhino horns were hacked off while the creatures were still alive.
As the horror and outrage grew, De Villiers, then appointed to start the Green Scorpions in the provincial department of economic development, environmental affairs and tourism (Dedeat) used his position as head of the Eastern Cape Environmental Crime Working Group to bring together all government units investigating rhino cases to co-ordinate the drive to bring down the Ndlovu gang.
De Villiers, director of compliance and enforcement at environmental affairs, drew together leading investigator Captain Mornay Coetzee, senior prosecutor advocate Buks Coetzee, police — especially stock-theft units — the Hawks, SANParks and private game reserves, especially around Makana.
The dramatic arrest and trial is recorded by the authors, but De Villiers said he was staggered at the amount of public interest.
A march to the courts at the height of the gang’s trial in Makhanda drew thousands.
“I only expected a handful,” the tall, tank-like conservator known for his bushy beard and conservation khakis, said.
He and Carlisle connected through the case and he suggested their writing partnership.
The book, with its cover showing protests and the outline of a mutilated rhino, is out.
The trial focused on 10 of the poaching incidents, particularly the final incident in June 2016 when the Ndlovus, who were not brothers, killed “Campbell”, a massive bull on the Bucklands Game Reserve within the Great Fish River Game Reserve complex.
They were jailed in 2018, leading to a collapse of rhino poaching.
But that has changed, with more poachers coming in to replace the Ndlovus.
This is De Villiers’ fifth published work, some co-authored, others solo efforts covering topics from his life story as a ranger, this year’s A Field Ranger’s Handbook with Ken Coetzee and Wallie Stroebel, and two editions of Mkambati and the Wild Coast with late legendary Port St Johns photographer and NSRI commander John Costello.
De Villiers — who retired three years ago at 60 — said he was deeply concerned about the decline of state funding for conservation and law enforcement.
He said that in 2018, during an anti-poaching protest march to the Ndlovu trial, one of the frontline marchers, the then-Dedeat MEC, now premier Oscar Mabuyane, who is shown in a photograph in the book, proclaimed the protection of rhino was an act of protecting our heritage and promised more money would be set aside for conservation and environmental law enforcement.
The opposite had happened since then, De Villiers said, and the already struggling department’s budget had been repeatedly slashed.
He said the continual cuts “mean there are increasingly insufficient resources to fight environment crimes such as the poaching of rhinos, cycads, clivias, aloes and succulents”.
“The illegal rhino horn market is still there,” he said.
There are new gangsters in the bush, the Chitiyo syndicate which was brought down in 2023, but not until after they had used .375 calibre elephant guns to slay 23 rhinos.
It cheers him up that they were bust, convicted and jailed.
He said there had also been a national reduction in the number of rhinos being slaughtered in hot spots, which he put down to dehorning programmes in the Kruger National Park and Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park.
But amid the government slump in resources and other criticisms, such as his view that the NPA in Mthatha is still failing to prosecute environmental crimes, there has been a gear shift in the war against rhino poaching.
Private game reserves have forged highly effective anti-poaching units (APUs) in the space created by the diminished Dedeat unit.
These efforts have also drawn global funding support from organisations such as the World Bank and the Wilderness Foundation and have drawn in top investigators and officers, provide excellent training and are well-resourced on the ground and in the air.
They work with Dedeat and the Eastern Cape Parks and Tourism Agency and he is encouraged by the collaboration.
“They use military precision, have night vision equipment, use thermal imagery, their members are trained in the use of weapons and are skilled in self-defence and tracking, and have really effective canine units.
“The state relies on the assistance of these APUs.”
Once the units know how poachers intend to target an area, they are “often caught before they commit the crime”.
De Villiers, who is also the chair of the Wild Coast Development Forum, said they were pushing ahead with their court case to force Dedeat to stop poaching, deforestation and illegal development on the Wild Coast.
However, he said there had been a shift in the government’s stance and hinted that there were out-of-court attempts at resolution through a return to upholding environmental law.
Without giving away the juicy innards in the book, he said the work had a positive side.
It sets out, in action, how effective South Africans can be when they work together under good leadership.
He is still shaken by the country-wide public reaction, saying even a car guard in Pretoria had spotted him in ranger uniform and came up to ask about the Ndlovu case.
“South Africans were deeply worried about what was going to happen to wildlife in SA, which was encouraging and surprising.
“South Africans from all quarters care about our wildlife and environment and want to protect it.”
He is proud of the role played in bringing rhino poaching down to zero in the Eastern Cape and said the new influence of APUs run by former SAPS officers started at Shamwari.
With funds from global NGOs, vehicles are being bought and air surveillance is possible.
Since retiring, De Villiers says: “I am busier than ever!”
His Div de Villiers Conservation Services are used by authors, private reserves use him for investigations and training, farmers call him in for his environmental and conservation expertise and soon he heads north to assess conservation in African wildlife reserves.
His latest project is to train up an all-woman team of rangers to protect the resuscitated and renovated Mkhambati reserve, remodelled under a concession to a private SA firm, Mkambathi Matters, run by Colin Bell.
With the book reaching the public, De Villiers believes conservation has a chance to push back the criminals.
Daily Dispatch
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