INLSA
Polela
Colleen Dardagan
SUSPENDED Hawks spokesman McIntosh Polela is facing charges of poaching, pointing a firearm and defeating the ends of justice after killing a rare antelope in a nature reserve at the weekend.
Polela admits shooting the animal, saying he thought it was not illegal to do so.
A case was opened at the Himeville police station on Saturday by Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife after farmers stopped Polela and four others, late at night, in a car loaded with high-calibre rifles and the carcasses of a grey duiker and a protected mountain reedbuck.
Polela was suspended from the Hawks in November after he tweeted that supporters of convicted murderer and kwaito star Molemo “Jub Jub” Maaronhanye should supply him with a jar of Vaseline for his first night in jail.
When The Mercury phoned Polela yesterday, he asked if the newspaper was calling to order game meat.
Asked if he had some, he said: “Yes, I do. I was hunting on my own communal land.”
Polela said he used a .308 rifle with a silencer and a spotlight.
“I go hunting often. It is my passion. If you go in the middle of the night with a spotlight that’s called game shooting. I do both, of course.”
Polela said he did not see how it was illegal to shoot game on land owned, in part, by his family. He also denied any knowledge of the protected status of the reedbuck, saying he had “often” obtained a licence to hunt the species.
Police spokesman Vincent Mdunge said the matter was being investigated by Pietermaritzburg detectives.
He said farmers had spotted a group of people hunting “illegally” in a nature reserve on Friday night.
“A farmer saw them and alerted other farmers, who were allegedly threatened at gunpoint by one person in the group. He told the farmers to back off, which they did.”
Mdunge said detectives were in possession of photographs of the accused, the car and the dead buck.
Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife spokesman Musa Mntambo said hunting at night was illegal, unless for culling, when it required the approval of the conservation body.
“The reedbuck is a TOP (threatened or protected) species,” he said.
“It was shot with a high-calibre rifle by members of the public who were trespassing,” he said.
Polela said he did not need a permit.
