What is the law regarding the use of sound moderators on rifles in the various African countries?

Whiltst multiples are not the name of the game if one is used to shooting rifles with them on and shoots better with them why not use your old favourite exactly as is for plains game?

Keep them far away from Zim! Being found in possesion of one guarantees you a minimum mandatory five year brick making apprenticeship in one of our lovely jails. (oh and bring your own food- government cannot afford to feed the army or police let alone prisoners)

They are perfectly OK in Nam and RSA.

What is a sound moderator?

Generic name is "Silencer."

There were moves afoot to try and severely restrict/licence/ban silencers recently.
Again, some beaurocratic dingbat had probably watched a movie where the bad guys had silenced weapons.
Fortunately the hunting and sporting industry rallied sufficient noise to get them to change the impending regulations to allow people to have sound moderators or suppressors suitable for firearms which were legally licened to them.

What are they used for in South Africa?

They are very ineffective on high velocity rounds.

We use them mostly for problem animals at night.
Bushpig with a 300 gr subsonic 9.3 or 180 gr 303 subsonic or the 200gr in .30 calibre.

Shooting distances are seldom over 50 meters at night and you dont want to alarm everybody in the neighbourhood at night on the fields.

Even with high velocities when we shoot animals a bit further out they work quite well and people dont really hear the shot if they sit in their houses.

Most culling operations use them, they contain the blast and don't seem to upset the animals as much. I noted at a recent hunting rifle match that a lot of folks were using them and was told that they also affect felt recoil to quite a degree.
They do tame the noise quite considerably, and the one time I used a 243 with a suppressor I was quite impressed at the results. Noise and recoil.
Hope that helps.
I have had silencers on my 22's since I can remnber, and the local mynah and foraging (kitchen raiding) vervet monkeys have felt the brunt without the galloping grannies tearing up the neighbourhood trying to find the mean spirited assassin

Thanks.

.44 Magnum rifles with silencers used to be used by some Aussies when jumping the back fence. In the "good" old days. So the "grannies" also did not come looking for them too.

I shot my taxidermists .270 in RSA and was amazed at how much less recoil there was, and of course it was much quieter.

In sniping operations according to an article I read, even with the sound barrier crack, it is harder to place the origin of the shot since muzzle blast is contained. There is no dust kicked up from prone; less recoil so they could follow shot results through scope; no deafening noise if shooting from inside rooms; no/less muzzle flash, etc...

I was once in a Dublin gun shop and asked if they had any silencers. I was thinking of airgun silencers at the time. I was taken to see the silencers for firearms, which rather bowled me over!

In more densely populated countries, the noise guns make at trap clubs etc... will often mean silencers are encouraged in order to keep the neighbors happy. I can't help thinking that if the busy beauro types weren't trying to ban guns outright, they would be trying to force us to use silencers for various EPA reasons.