NGO dismisses R30000 rhino hunting fine as slap on the wrist


Kim Helfrich

Leading conservation NGO the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT) maintains the R30000 fine or 100 days in jail sentence handed down to an illegal rhino hunter is “mild”.

Christiaan van Wyk of Mossel Bay was last week found guilty in the Mokopane Magistrate’s Court of hunting a rhino without a permit.

“We expected a higher fine,” said Faan Coetzee of the EWT’s rhino security project.

“We know Van Wyk has been involved in at least four rhino hunts and would have earned in the region of R20000 per hunt.

“While he was not found guilty of illegal activity in all these hunts the money he made out of rhino hunting far exceeds the fine imposed. In those circumstances the fine is mild.”

Coetzee added: “While hunting a rhino without a permit is illegal, the owner of the rhino in this case had given permission for it to be hunted.

“As such it could not be labelled poaching – a far more serious offence.”

Van Wyk was arrested in 2006 when Coetzee was an environmental management inspector for the then Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

He was also investigating officer on the case.

Criticism of the “mild” sentence came at the same time as a warning to those involved in rhino poaching from SANParks chief executive David Mabunda.

“Anyone who does anything illegal or untoward to South Africa’s wildlife will face the full might of the law,” Mabunda said, following the first appearance of a wildlife veterinarian in the Musina Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

The case against Andre Uys was postponed to March 18 and he was released on bail of R10000.