SA men part of Zim rhino poaching set
From The Cape Argus (SA), 16 August

Eleanor Momberg

South Africans are involved in the poaching of rhinos and other endangered
species in Zimbabwe, according to conservationists and wildlife monitors.
The claim comes in the midst of denials by the father of Prince Harry's
former girlfriend, Charles Davy, that he was linked to a poaching syndicate
that allegedly involved two Zimbabwean ministers. "South Africans have been
involved in poaching for quite some time in Zimbabwe," said David Newton,
head of Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network, this week. "It is
not just rhino poaching, but also generalised poaching. They are taking
advantage of a collapsed system there." South Africans were also linked to
the bush meat trade, which saw the appearance of mobile butcheries near
poaching sites and the sale of game meat to not only the luxury end of the
Zimbabwean market, but also to the export market, said Traffic. The
involvement of South Africans in killing Zimbabwe's depleting wildlife was
also confirmed by Johnny Rodrigues, head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task
Force (ZCTU), and Prof John Skinner of the Onderstepoort Centre for
Veterinary Wildlife. Both alleged that two Afrikaans-speaking men from
Musina were among those leading poaching operations in Zimbabwe. Rodrigues
also implicated two brothers from Alldays, Limpopo, particularly for lion
poaching in protected areas.

Skinner said the "whole poaching operation" was being run by the two Musina
men. "The authorities know who they are, but cannot nail them." Musa Zondi,
spokesman for the police's organised crime unit, yesterday said the police
were working with the Zimbabwean authorities in "trying to crack and smash
syndicates involved in poaching or any other crime". Zondi said while some
syndicates did have Chinese links, most of those operating in South Africa
used locals. Rodrigues said poaching of rhinos had reached critical levels,
with between four and 12 white and black rhinos being killed monthly. Only
five of the 54 rhinos in the Midlands Conservancy have not been killed by
poachers in the past eight months, while three rhinos had been poached in
the past week in the Bubye Valley Conservancy, partly owned by Davy. More
than 50 rhinos had been shot for their horns this year, and an estimated 120
were killed last year. Zimbabwe's rhino population, he said, was estimated
to be about 350, of which 100 were to be found at Bubye Valley.

Who would have thought? Isn't this what the Zim PH's have been shouting about for years now and very little has been done about it on either side of the boarder. What about the whole sale slaughter of the zebra by SA syndicates. Anyway we have the names so will see where that leads.

Sadly, there some cowboys who are giving the South African PHs a bad name.

I think the bes thing that could happen is to name and shame them. And the PHASA should do something about it.

Naw; the best thing would be to cut off their "horn" and sell it.

Saeed, and would PHASA do too them, kick them out of PHASA???!@#@$#@$@#%#$%

They most probably are not even members of PHASA,

Years ago I was Dep.Dir Customs Special Investigations, working with the SAPS Endangered Species Protection Unit, and they had files as thick as a Democrat , on a couple of very known PH'S and they could not make anything stick, then the ANC disbanded them and those cases went where ???

I agree wholeheartedlly name them , shame them and get their US visas yanked, and SCI BAN THEM,

O I forgot, if they pay a huge donation they can still have their booths