Hunt is on for leopard-slaughterer
Tony Carnie
September 05 2008 at 09:04AM

Police are hunting for a Jozini man linked to the slaughter of at least 120 leopards, a rare and specially protected hunting cat whose distinctive spotted pelts often adorn the shoulders of the Zulu royal family and other traditional dignitaries.

The man was arrested four years ago when police found the remains of 64 leopard skins, which were in the process of being tailored into traditional attire.

Though he was eventually convicted of several serious wildlife crimes in the Ingwavuma Magistrate's Court last year, he never went to jail. Instead, he was fined, given a suspended sentence and ordered to do community service. But now it appears that he never gave up his thriving illegal business, which involved poisoning endangered cats and other wild animals with a potent weedkiller.

Three weeks ago, police found the remnants of another 64 leopards at his home in the Mamfeni area, near Jozini, along with skins from several civet cats, 10 suni antelope, 30 samango monkeys, a wildebeest and five grey duiker.

The culprit was not at home, but detectives found several cans of a powerful German-made pesticide which they believe was used to poison wildlife watering holes in Zululand, Maputaland and possibly Mozambique. The man and his agents were also suspected of using traps and guns to kill the animals.

Details of the discovery, which has shocked nature conservation officials, were announced yesterday by Senior Superintendent Rajen Aiyer, head of the police organised crime unit in Durban.

The case is likely to revive debate about the ceremonial display of protected animal skins by the Zulu nobility or traditional leaders and the degree to which this drives commercially driven wildlife crimes.

Aiyer was speaking at a meeting of the KZN Wildlife Crime Working Group in the Hluhluwe-Imfolozi game reserve.

He said the wildlife products seized at Mamfeni were valued conservatively at R2.6 million and he noted that a single leopard claw could be sold for R100 at the Mona traditional market at Nongoma.

Aiyer is a founder member of the wildlife crime working group which was set up in KZN six years ago, soon after the police endangered species unit was disbanded.

The group includes senior Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife and KZN Prosecuting Service officials.

Ezemvelo ecologist Catharine Hanekom said hundreds of tons of wildlife products, mainly plants, bark and tubers, were being sold at the Mona market every month.

Mona supplies muti products at wholesale prices to traditional healers and dealers who transport the goods to the Warwick Triangle market in Durban, the Farraday market in Johannesburg and possibly markets in Malawi, Botswana, Mozambique and Swaziland.

Hanekom said traditional medicine was used by millions of people around the world and the demand was unlikely to decline. However, several plant species were used wastefully. Traditionally, muti was harvested sustainably and in small quantities, to protect the parent stock, but with rapid urbanisation, suppliers now felled entire trees to harvest the bark.

The exploitation of dwindling natural resources could not be sustained, she said, noting that the rural landscape was being steadily degraded, in particular by organised commercial timber groups.

One of the more unusual guests at the meeting was Sindi Mkhize, a Pietermaritzburg sangoma who was convicted of wildlife-related crimes.

Some of Mkhize's initiates stole and killed a rare Seychelles tortoise from the Lion Park and Zoological Gardens near Camperdown two years ago. A lion skin and a leopard skin were also found at Mkhize's home. She was later sentenced to community service.

Advocate Dalene Barnard, who prosecuted the case, noted that several people were horrified that Mkhize had been given a soft sentence, but she was satisfied that community service had been the correct option.

Barnard said Mkhize told her that she had benefited from the sentence, which included cutting down invasive alien trees and plants, and had also volunteered to become involved with public awareness projects with other traditional healers.

This article was originally published on page 1 of The Mercury on September 05, 2008

He need to have a drink of his own doctored water....

quote:

Originally posted by Jakkals:
He need to have a drink of his own doctored water....

Or an enema...