A notorious rhino poacher who dragged out his trial for nearly 10 years is back behind bars to serve a lengthy new jail term – but two of his accomplices walked free on March 26 after paying “slap-on-the-wrist” fines that have shocked senior wildlife conservationists.
Ulundi builder Muntugogkwakhe Khoza‚ 50, maintained his innocence to the end‚ but Durban regional court magistrate Logan Naidoo rejected his repeated lies and attempts to delay the trial.
Naidoo sentenced him to 14 years in prison at the conclusion of a trial that lasted almost a decade.
However‚ his two accomplices – SA National Defence Force soldier Mduduzi Xulu, 51, and Ekurhuleni municipality driver Ayanda Buthelezi, 39 – escaped with suspended jail sentences and a fine of R8‚000 and R6‚000, respectively.
They had been arrested at a roadblock soon after another white rhino was slaughtered in the Hluhluwe-iMfolozi game reserve in August 2009.
A fourth suspect jumped bail during the trial and is still at large.
Nearly 7‚000 rhinos have been slaughtered by poachers nationwide since 2008.
The white rhino population in SA’s flagship Kruger National Park has been cut in half by poaching over the past decade and rhino poaching has also been declared a national priority crime to safeguard the country’s rhino herds from unprecedented rates of illegal slaughter.
Senior conservationists welcomed the conviction and sentencing of Khoza‚ but expressed frustration that a seemingly clear-cut case had dragged on for so long.
They also slammed the lenient sentences for Khoza’s accomplices.
“This trial should never have been allowed to drag on for so long and we hope other outstanding rhino-poaching cases in KwaZulu-Natal will now be dealt with as quickly as possible‚” Project Rhino coordinator Chris Galliers said.
Galliers‚ a senior member of the Game Rangers’ Association of Africa‚ said rangers were placing their lives on the line to protect rhinos and other wildlife species from determined gangs of armed criminals‚ and were hoping for stronger support from the judiciary.
Dr George Hughes‚ former head of the Ezemvelo KwaZuluNatal Wildlife conservation agency‚ said he was disappointed by the sentences for Xulu and Buthelezi and likened their penalties to those applied in petty crimes such as shoplifting.
“I think these sentences are unfortunate given the national rhino poaching crisis and the hundreds of millions of rands it has cost the economy for increased protection measures in reserves‚” he said.
Dr Richard Emslie‚ a senior scientist and member of the African Rhino Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature‚ said the sentences did not match the economic cost of the crime.
Emslie‚ the main author of a new report on the status of Africa’s rhinos‚ said the economic value of white rhinos in SA had dropped 58% over the past decade because of the poaching crisis‚ representing a combined loss of more than R10.38bn to the country – or roughly R1m per animal.
“Seen in this context‚ a fine of around R1m for a trafficking seizure involving poaching of multiple animals is well below the economic cost of the crime‚” he said in his report.
Yuri Gangai‚ the senior state advocate who handled the case‚ also appeared crestfallen over the sentences for Xulu and Buthelezi‚ having earlier urged the magistrate to send them to jail for 15 years and 12 years, respectively.
He said while Buthelezi had not participated in the hunting‚ he had nevertheless been hired to pick up the poachers and transport the horns.
“He is as guilty in his role as the driver of a getaway car as those in a bank robbery,” he had argued.
Xulu‚ stationed at 121 Battalion at Mtubatuba‚ was paid by taxpayers to protect them and the assets of the nation – but he had betrayed their trust‚ Gangai said.
Khoza was previously convicted of another rhino horn crime, in 2013 in Utrecht, and also faces further charges for allegedly hunting rhinos in the Paulpietersburg district in 2018 while awaiting trial for the first Hluhluwe-iMfolozi poaching case in 2009.