Dawie Groenewald was allegedly the mastermind of one of South Africa’s largest rhino poaching syndicates.

http://www.citizen.co.za/12258...ching-trial-delayed/

The ongoing legal battle about government’s moratorium on domestic trade in rhino horn has resulted in a second rhino poaching syndicate trial being delayed in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria this week.

Judge Nomonde Mngquibisa-Thusi on Thursday provisionally postponed the trial of Polokwane game farmer Dawie Groenwald, his wife Sariëtte and eight co-accused to June 15 next year to await the final outcome of a civil battle about the validity of the 2009 moratorium.

Groenewald was allegedly the mastermind of one of South Africa’s largest rhino poaching syndicates.

A full bench of the High Court in Pretoria in 2015 set aside the moratorium, which meant that domestic trade in rhino horn in South Africa became legal, although the international ban on such trade remained in place.

The court ruled that government had failed to meet even the minimum requirements of a public consultative and participatory process, and said the level of rhino poaching since the moratorium came into effect was “quite alarming” and there was no evidence that it helped to stop international smuggling.

Both the High Court and the Supreme Court of Appeal subsequently turned down Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa’s application for leave to appeal against the ruling and the Minister has now turned to the Constitutional Court in a bid to appeal.

Jaap Cilliers SC, who represents Groenewald, told the court the moratorium formed an integral part of the charge sheet and it was an absolute necessity for the criminal trial to get clarity on the issue.

Groenewald and his co-accused, which include two veterinary surgeons and a pilot, face more than 1 800 charges, including racketeering, money laundering, illegal hunting of rhino, dealing in rhino horn and contravening the Biodiversity and Prevention of Organised Crime Acts.

Alleged members of the syndicate were arrested in 2010 after a 15-month investigation called “Project Cruiser”, which allegedly linked them to hundreds of illegal rhino poaching incidents over a four-year period.

Groenewald was in 2010 detained in the United States and eventually fined $30 000 for among others selling an illegal leopard hunt to an American sports hunter.

The trial of another alleged rhino poaching syndicate led by professional hunter and game farmer Hugo Ras was postponed earlier this week until February next year to await the outcome of a constitutional challenge to provincial regulations underpinning the charges against him and nine co-accused.

The trial of alleged rhino poaching kingpin Hugo Ras and nine co-accused was postponed until February 15 next year.

http://www.citizen.co.za/12241...hino-poaching-trial/

The trial of alleged rhino poaching kingpin Hugo Ras and nine co-accused was on Wednesday postponed in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria until next year to await the outcome of a constitutional challenge to regulations underpinning the charges against them.

Judge Nomonde Mngquibisa-Thusi provisionally postponed the trial until February 15 next year.

Prosecutor Joanie Spies told the court the state and defence had reached an agreement that the trial would be postponed pending the outcome of a constitutional challenge by two of the accused, Joseph Wilkinson and David Steyn, which will be heard in the High Court early next year.

Some of the other accused were also contemplating joining the application. The constitutional challenge, which centres on regulations surrounding the illegal possession, sale and transportation of rhino horns, could result in the delay of numerous poaching cases.

The accused are challenging the validity of numerous presumptions contained in the conservation ordinances of various provinces which, under certain conditions, placed the burden of proof of being legally in possession of, transporting, selling, buying and receiving rhino horns on the accused.

They maintain presumptions of guilt had fallen away since the advent of the Constitution and the State would have to ensure that the applicants’ rights to a presumption of innocence, to remain silent and not to testify during the proceedings were not being abrogated.

The accused will also rely on a court ruling which lifted the moratorium on the possession and transport of rhino horns, which they believed could have an influence on the charges against them. Ras, his wife Trudie, Mandla Magagula, Willie Oosthuizen, Wilkenson, Steyn, Arno Smit, Matthys Scheepers, Anton Ras and Willie van Jaarsveld face a total of 318 charges centring around alleged rhino poaching and the alleged theft and illegal possession, transport and sale of rhino horn. They also face charges of racketeering and money laundering.

The State alleges Hugo Ras had been the head of a criminal enterprise which operated between 2008 and 2012 with its members engaging in various illegal activities aimed at making a profit from amongst others the sale of rhino horns and parts of other species.

The activities, including alleged poaching raids at various state and privately owned game reserves, were allegedly planned in the Ras couple’s homes around Pretoria North, where poaching equipment such as a darting rifle, knives and medicine were allegedly kept openly.

C'est l'Afrique

Same as Theo Bronkhorst trying to have the Cecil case thrown out because it was tarnishing his reputation. Just smoke and mirrors. Guy's guilty of that and much more (in Zimbabwe), QED.

https://www.iol.co.za/news/sou...ching-trial-12996523


Technical glitches delay rhino poaching trial
GAUTENG / 29 JANUARY 2018, 4:12PM / ZELDA VENTER


Pretoria - In September this year, it will be eight years since Limpopo game farmer Dawie Groenewald and his co-accused were arrested on a multitude of rhino poaching related charges, yet their criminal trial was on Monday once again postponed to still sort out various technical glitches.

Groenewald, alleged to be the rhino horn syndicate kingpin and his co-accused, which include a helicopter pilot, two veterinarians and professional hunters, appeared in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, where their trial was this time postponed to March 29.

All charges were meanwhile withdrawn by the state against Groenewald’s wife Sariette. This followed last years’ Constitutional Court ruling confirming the lifting of South Africa’s moratorium on domestic trade in rhino horn.

This also resulted in the state dropping about 60 charges against the eight accused and an amended charge sheet was subsequently served on the group in December last year.


They are, however, still facing about 1 600 charges, ranging from racketeering, money laundering, illegal hunting of rhino to dealing in rhino horn.

Prosecutor Joanie Spies told the court that there were a lot of developments in the case since the group appeared in court in June last year, including that they were partially successful in their Constitutional challenge, which led to some charges being dropped and an amended charge sheet which had to be drawn up.

One of the accused, Manie du Plessis, was also still engaging with the State regarding a possible plea bargain. Spies said as far as she understood, this was still on track.

The State had also formulated certain admissions regarding the case, which had had forwarded to the defence teams. Spies said the State was still waiting for a response on this, but she understood from one of the defence team members that they will make no admissions.

She said while the State had been ready for more than a year to call its witnesses, the case had to be postponed so that these and various other issues could be sorted out. The plan was to meet with Deputy Judge President Aubrey Ledwaba to allocate a judge to streamline all these outstanding issues, before the trial could kick-off.

The defence estimated that the criminal trial could last between six months to a year once it had started. It agreed that the Constitutional challenge did delay matters, but it was agreed that the outstanding matters had to be adjudicated by a judge before the trial could kick-off.

All the accused are out on bail, except accused Nardus Rossouw, whose bail was revoked after he was arrested on other related charges last year.

The group, said to be one the largest rhino syndicates in the country, were arrested in September 2010 after a 15 month investigation called “Project Cruiser”. They were allegedly linked to hundreds of illegal rhino poaching operations over four years.

About 26 buried rhino carcasses were in 2013 found on Groenewald’s farm in Musina, with their horns removed.

Groenewald and his brother Janneman Groenewald, were yet again arrested in June last year, a mere few days after their former court appearance, after Interpol executed an international warrant for their arrest.

They were at the time again released on bail.

This came after American hunters claimed they were misled by the Groenewalds and their hunting company into believing that they were legally hunting rhino when they came out to the Limpopo farm.

zelda.venter@inl.co.za

This trial has dragged on for so long, it might be good to revisit the initial felonies committed by Out of Africa and their allies.

Here is a list of the alleged rhino poachers named in this 2010 article:

Dawie Groenewald of Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris
Sariette Groenewald - Dawie's ex-wife
Tielman Erasmus of Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris
Karel Toet - veterinarian
Manie du Plessis - veterinarian
Mariza du Plessis - Manie's wife
George Fletcher of Sandhurst Safaris
Gerhardus Saaiman of Saaiman Aviation


                                                                                                                         
Farmers help to catch poachers


Limpopo game farmers are outraged that people they trusted, including vets, have been implicated in alleged rhino poaching in the province, although some farmers were instrumental in their arrest.

This week police smashed what they believe is a major rhino-poaching ring, in which well-organized South African hunting outfits might have been supplying Vietnamese and Chinese syndicates with rhino horn.

On Monday Dawie Groenewald and his wife, Sariette Groenewald, of Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris, and a contracted hunter, Tielman Erasmus, were arrested at a farm near Louis Trichardt. Also among those held in raids by the South African Police Service were two vets from the Modimolle area, Karel Toet and Manie du Plessis, and Toet’s wife, Mariza.

Dawie Groenewald was released on R1-million bail and Sariette Groenewald on bail of R100 000.

The arrests follow the netting earlier this year of George Fletcher of Sandhurst Safaris and Gerhardus Saaiman of Saaiman Aviation, who will stand trial in October on rhino-poaching charges.

The National Prosecuting Authority said in May that the Asset Forfeiture Unit had confiscated a small helicopter and an Aerostar plane belonging to Saaiman as part of a restraint order for R45-million.

In the Limpopo bust police reportedly traced a helicopter seen at a number of the poaching sites back to Sariette Groenewald. According to Beeld, the chopper belonged to Valinor Trading 142, of which she is a director.

Renita Prinsloo, the secretary of the Makhado district farmers’ union, said that a farmer in the area had followed a Robinson R44 helicopter to Marken and alerted the police. She said the farmers had become informed aerial spotters. “We feel like air traffic controllers these days,” she said. “Anything in the sky gets queried.”

Prinsloo, who coordinates intelligence from the farmers, said the police had been very sharp in their operations. “We’ve established quite an efficient intelligence network to spot potential poachers and close off roads when necessary, working with the police,” she said.

Five rhinos were killed in the Makhado district in the past month, and a number of killings were prevented.

“Farmers are gatvol [fed up]; they’re very enthusiastic about catching the perpetrators,” she said, adding that the community is shocked by the involvement of the vets and their alleged role as intelligence-gatherers. Toet and Du Plessis are well-known specialists with a good reputation in the area, she said.

“Farmers are livid. They trusted these people to come on to their farms and nurse their animals. Meanwhile, they were gathering information. Because of their work, they knew how many animals there are on each game farm and where the bomas are. They knew which farmers are businessmen and would be away from their farms. And they knew the farms’ borders.”

No surprise

But the arrest of individuals linked to Out of Africa does not seem to have surprised the Limpopo farming community. Prinsloo said one of the farmers in the area, who knew the Groenewalds, grew suspicious when the former policeman started displaying new-found wealth.

Following an investigation, Out of Africa was expelled from Zimbabwe by nature conservation authorities for apparent illegal activities in 2005. Groenewald was also suspended from the South African Professional Hunters’ Association in 2006 for unethical behaviour and in April this year was arrested in the United States when he tried to smuggle a leopard skin into the country. Beeld reported that he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a fine of $30 000.

Erasmus, a former recce, also attracted attention. A source close to the Erasmus family said he had suddenly begun accumulating money.

Johnny Rodrigues, the chairperson of civilian group Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, said this week that he believed Groenewald was part of the “Musina mafia” that ran illegal hunts in Zimbabwe.

The M&G reported in 2003 that South African hunters had moved into Zimbabwe to hunt on farms seized by “war vets” without the necessary permits. Groenewald said at the time that all his papers were in order but he was expelled soon afterward.

Both Groenewald and his wife’s phones were switched off on Wednesday and they could not be reached for comment. Erasmus did not respond to a message.

Meanwhile, the arrest of three press photographers and the manhandling of one of them yesterday by police at the court appearance of the suspected poachers was condemned by the South African National Editors’ Forum. The three were detained for 45 minutes at the Musina police station and prevented from taking pictures of the accused. The men were later released after interventions by a prosecutor and acting police Hawks spokesperson Colonel Vishnu Naidoo.