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Police Arrest Nine Linked To Rhino Horn Poaching Ring

Rhino Poaching Accused’s Farm An “Animal Slaughterhouse”
Sunday, September 26, 2010

A report in Rapport says the farm Prachtig was known as :”the animal slaughterhouse”.

The farm belonged to Dawie Groenewald a controversial hunting figure and an ex-cop who has been banned from a local hunting association. Groenewald is said to have bought anything up to 30 rhinos from Sanparks. Rapport reports that farm workers did not know that the name of the farm was Out of Africa as advertised and that they knew it as the “animal slaughterhouse”.

Groenewald also bought rhino through a middleman, vet Dr Karel Toet who was also arrested in the rhino ring bust. The farm has 32 rhino in its premises still with some missing their horns. A shocking claim in the newspaper is that a horn from a fully grown rhino could be worth up to twice as much as a live rhino. Rhino horn goes for $20,000 a kilo while live rhinos cost up to R300,000.

Groenewald is out on R1 million bail.

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Farmers help to catch poachers
YOLANDI GROENEWALD | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA - Sep 25 2010 17:45

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-organised 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, 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.

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Alleged rhino poachers out on bail
Sep 22, 2010 12:19 PM | By Sapa

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Eleven people accused of being members of a rhino poaching syndicate have been released on bail in the Musina Magistrate's Court.

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Game farmer Dawie Groenewald was released on R1 million bail and his wife, Sariette, on R100,000 bail.

Veterinarian Karel Toet received R50,000 bail while his wife, Mariza Toet, received R20,000 and his colleague, veterinarian Manie du Plessis, was released on R20,000.

The other accused, professional hunter Tielman Roos Erasmus, Dewald Gouws, Nordus Rossouw, Leon van der Merwe and Jacobus Marthinus Pronk. were released on R20,000 bail each while Paul Matoromela received R5,000 bail.

Their bail conditions included that they would not be allowed to tamper with 32 rhinos currently on Groenewald's game farm, Pragtig, in Musina.

They had to hand in their passports and identity documents and had to give the police a week's notice if they wanted to leave the province.

The 11 accused nodded in agreement when the magistrate asked them if they understood the bail conditions.

The case was postponed to April 11.

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Originally posted by Howard:
I am confused. It appears from the original post and several other add on posts that attempts are being made to cast suspicion upon those on the list simply because they asked someone for news????

Does that mean that everyone here on AR asking for news and updates on this ongoing story are somehow under suspicion too?

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Originally posted by Ganyana:
George Pangeti is in a ticklish possition ...he is:
Chairman of the Zimbabwe National Parks Board:
Director, Out Of Africa Safaris:
Safari Club International's Africa Representitive...

When you talk about conflict of interest...a) no wonder he is following the case closely and b) no wonder those who would like his juicy post in Zim are circling like a flock of vultures

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Originally posted by Bwana Bunduki:
Libby Grimes runs the SCI convention. She was pissed when Usangu got whacked.

Jeff

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Originally posted by Mike Smith:
I had the following sent to me and dont quite know what to make of it. I will leave you all to your own thoughts:
"I got an email forwarded to me where Linda Venter of SCI Africa sent out the newspaper article about Dawies arraignment. It was interesting who had contacted her wanting news. Perhaps you should post the list on AR.

Larry Rudolph: lrudolph@safariclub.org
Kevin Anderson: andersonmilholland@msn.com
Linda Venter: sciafric@global.co.za

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Originally posted by Hoot Murray:
Mike Smith,

Could you further explain the "list" that was sent to you. From your post it is not clear if the folks on the list requested information from Linda Carter...

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I am confused. It appears from the original post and several other add on posts that attempts are being made to cast suspicion upon those on the list simply because they asked someone for news????

Does that mean that everyone here on AR asking for news and updates on this ongoing story are somehow under suspicion too?

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Arrested SA poaching gang linked to Minister Kembo Mohadi By Tererai Karimakwenda
22nd September 2010

Dawie Groenewald, owner of the notorious Out of Africa Adventure Safaris company and his wife, Sariette, were arrested on Monday in South Africa, for allegedly being the masterminds behind an illegal rhino poaching gang. Nine other people, including veterinarians and hunters, were also arrested for poaching.

The gang appeared before a magistrate in South Africa on Wednesday, which is ironically also the day declared International Rhino Day by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The case was postponed until April 11th, 2011, after Groenewald reportedly posted bail of about one million rand, with the others paying less.

Out of Africa has been linked to top officials in Mugabe’s party, particularly the Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi. The company became notorious during the height of the farm invasions when they arranged hunting safaris on farms stolen by ZANU PF officials. Out of Africa was subsequently banned from entering the country in September 2004 by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

Sources told us that Minister Mohadi was responsible for facilitating the release of South African poachers when they were arrested in Zimbabwe.

But this time Groenewald and his partners have been arrested by South African authorities. Their ability to pay so much money in bail and the postponement till next year only raises further questions as to the extent of their connections to government officials in both countries.

Our sources, who chose to remain anonymous, told us that Mohadi interfered in a case last year that involved a well known South African poacher named Johan Roos. They said Roos, who lives in Musina, was captured inside Zimbabwe after a shoot out in the Bubye River Conservancy, where one guard was killed and another seriously injured. Roos was detained in the police cells in Beitbridge for two nights, but was suddenly released under unclear circumstances.

Raoul du Toit, director of the Lowveld Rhino Trust a partnership of key stakeholders, confirmed that Roos had indeed been arrested in August 2009. He explained that Roos was named in numerous other poaching cases as the guy who supplied weaponry, firearms and ammunition, and that it was through him that poachers had traded their rhino horns.

As to why Roos was released du Toit responded: “He was caught and released on grounds that can only be called dubious. But it’s like so many of these other cases. That syndicate has clearly infiltrated the officials responsible for holding him. It should come as no surprise that this was at Beitbridge, which to be absolutely honest is as a cesspool of corruption.”

Beitbridge falls under Minister Mohadi’s jurisdiction as a member of parliament.

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Originally posted by shakari:
This is pure speculation but I'd suspect that some people, including and perhaps especially, SCI members are worried that they might have (possibly) unknowingly broken the rules and are now concerned they might be investigated for Lacey Act violations.

The Lacey Act is immensely powerful, penalties can be extremely severe and it doesn't take much at all for an American citizen to break it.

As has been said, there are probably a fair number of very worried people out there just now.

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Originally posted by Nakihunter:
Howard & Matt

I respect the loyalty to friends and the commitment to justice & rule of law.