The South African National Parks (SANParks) on Wednesday commended the National Prosecuting Authority in Mpumalanga on the successful prosecution of two long-standing rhino poaching trials in the Mhala Regional Court.<\/p>\n
In February 2021, three accused persons who were arrested in August 2018 were sentenced after a long trial by the Mhala Regional Court.<\/p>\n
They were all found guilty of rhino poaching related charges, including the possession of two sets of rhino horns, a high caliber hunting rifle, ammunition and trespassing in a national park with the intention of committing crime and the illegal hunting of an endangered animal.<\/p>\n
Accused number one, Peter Mathebula was given an effective sentence of 23 years behind bars while the two co-accused, Mustard Mathebula and Artur Valoyi, were sentenced to an effective four years in jail.<\/p>\n
The three were arrested by SANParks Rangers in the Houtboschrand section of the Kruger National Park (KNP) after reacting to shots that were fired.<\/p>\n
On 15 March 2021, the court concluded yet another long running rhino poaching case dating back to 2016.<\/p>\n
Two accused persons Bennet Martin Lubisi and Bennet Johannes Bendane were sentenced to an effective eight years behind bars for poaching related charges.<\/p>\n
They were found guilty of trespassing in a national park, possession of an unlicensed fire arm, ammunition with the intention to commit a crime. They were arrested before they could kill an animal.<\/p>\n
The Managing Executive of the KNP, Gareth Coleman, praised those who made the initial arrests, the investigative and prosecuting teams.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough it has taken some time, we are proud of the work done by the rangers, the investigating and prosecuting teams under very difficult circumstances.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuccesses of this nature show the importance of co-operation between the various state agencies to help combat the assault on the rhino population in the Kruger National Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope that the many outstanding cases can be concluded as soon as possible so as to act as a clear deterrent to those involved,\u201d Coleman said. \u2013 SAnews.gov.za <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The South African National Parks (SANParks) on Wednesday commended the National Prosecuting Authority in Mpumalanga on the successful prosecution of two long-standing rhino poaching trials in the Mhala Regional Court. In February 2021, three accused persons who were arrested in August 2018 were sentenced after a long trial by the Mhala Regional Court. They were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-183629","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-sanews","8":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183629","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183629"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183629\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183629"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183629"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183629"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}