http://www.news24.com/Africa/Z...bles-report-20150913



South Africans held in Zim for smuggling sables – report
2015-09-13 13:00


News24 Correspondent



Harare - Police in southern Zimbabwe have arrested three South Africans who they say were trying to smuggle 29 sables across the border, state media reported on Sunday.

The official Sunday Mail said the animals were worth $348 000 and were being transported in two trucks from a conservancy in Zimbabwe's arid lowveld region allegedly towards an undesignated border crossing with South Africa.

They were arrested on Saturday when the trucks got stuck in mud near Beitbridge, the paper said.

"The South Africans had no capture and translocation permits and had no export permits for the sables. The only documentation they had was a movement permit issued by the department of veterinary services, Hwange office," national parks spokesperson Caroline Washaya-Moyo told the Sunday Mail. Hwange is nearly 700km from Beitbridge.

The report named the three as Edwin Hewitt, aged 49, Hendricks Johannes Blignaut aged 41 and John Herbert Pretorius aged 49. They are due to appear in court this week.

South Africa's international relations and co-operation department told News24 it was not aware of the situation, adding that its embassy was closed and it would not be able to get more information before Monday.

They are alleged to have entered the country through the small Pandamatenga Border Post between Zimbabwe and Botswana. There were no other details.

There are few other recorded attempts of would-be game smuggling in recent years, though a South African businessman who repeatedly flouted border control regulations by flying his helicopter in and out of his ranch in southern Zimbabwe has regularly made the news.

Frikkie Lutzkie had a seven year jail sentence quashed by the High Court in May. The official Chronicle reported on August 24 that Lutzkie had just been deported after he tried to enter Zimbabwe again, this time through an airport in Bulawayo.

Just heard on the 1 o'clock news that a Zimbabwean named Theo Bronkhorst, the PH involved in the Cecil the Lion killing, was also arrested about this incident.

Interesting!

http://www.news24.com/Africa/Z...e-smuggling-20150915



Zim cops arrest Cecil hunter over sable smuggling

2015-09-15 09:51

News24 Correspondent


Harare - Police in Zimbabwe have arrested Theo Bronkhorst, the professional hunter behind the killing of Cecil the lion, following the discovery of 29 sable antelope allegedly being smuggled to South Africa, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Advocate Perpetua Dube said: "He’s been arrested. He’s detained at Hillside Police station."

Bronkhorst was arrested on Monday but charges against him are yet to be clarified, Dube said in a telephone interview from Bulawayo.

“The police from Beitbridge will determine that [when he will be brought to court]. I haven’t had a meeting with them. They were on their way last night,” she added.

Separate reports say that the professional hunter is under suspicion for illegally importing 29 sables from Zambia.

Three SA men detained

Conservation group the Bhejane Trust confirmed the sable were found in three 4x4 trucks that were trying to illegally cross the South African border near Beitbridge at the weekend.

Three South African men, all in their forties, are being held for trying to illegally export the animals.

Two of the animals had already died by the time the trucks were intercepted, the Bhejane Trust said.

It claimed the sables were originally imported from Zambia. "The Zimbabwean import papers could be dodgy," the group added.

Officials from the Bhejane Trust, which operates in the Victoria Falls and Hwange area, were not available for comment early on Tuesday. According to the trust, the animals had been kept in a boma on a farm Bronkhorst was living on outside Victoria Falls.

Cecil case

Bronkhorst is already due back in court at the end of the month for his part in the killing of Zimbabwe's most famous lion in early July in Hwange National Park.

Bronkhorst's client was US dentist Walter Palmer, who insists he believed the hunt - first with a bow and arrow and then with a gun - was legal. Palmer was a focus of global hatred when outrage over the 13-year-old lion's killing was at its peak at the beginning of August.

Invent Africa Safaris said in a post to Facebook: "The trucks got stuck in thick sand about 21 kilometres west of Beitbridge while attempting to cross the Limpopo River illegally, and were then confiscated by Zimbabwean police.

"The sable, thought to be of the sub-species kirkii, which typically have longer horns than their southern cousins, may well be part of a larger consignment South African breeders and hunters have been trying to smuggle out of Zambia since 2009."

Bronkhorst will appear in court on September 28 in connection with the Cecil case. Though the Zimbabwe authorities earlier indicated their desire to extradite dentist Palmer, they now seem to have abandoned the idea.

Not really Bronkhorst's year. If he's a pilot I wouldnt get in a plane with him until 2016.

http://www.zimbabwesituation.c...opped-lawyer-news24/



Sable smuggling charges against Zim hunter dropped – Lawyer

Posted on September 18, 2015 by ZimSitRep

via Sable smuggling charges against Zim hunter dropped – Lawyer | News24 2015-09-17

Harare – Prosecutors in Zimbabwe have been forced to drop a charge relating to the smuggling of sable antelopes against professional hunter, Theo Bronkhorst – of Cecil the lion fame – his lawyer said on Thursday.

But that does not mean he cannot still be charged in connection with the alleged crime.

But Bronkhorst, who was behind the illegal hunting of Cecil in July by an American dentist, now faces a fresh charge over the possession of wildlife trophies, it has emerged.

The Zimbabwean hunter was arrested on Monday in Bulawayo following the discovery at the weekend of 29 sable antelopes in trucks stuck at an illegal border crossing to South Africa.


First reports said two of the sable antelopes had died but there is a conflicting claim that the pair may have escaped.

Three South Africans have also been detained.

Global outrage

Cecil’s killing sparked a wave of global outrage, much of it directed against the hunting industry.

Advocate Perpetua Dube said prosecutors on Wednesday had attempted to put Bronkhorst on remand over the smuggling of the sable antelopes “which we obviously resisted because he had not been given any factual particulars for the charge”.

In an interview, she said the state decided to withdraw that charge before plea. “When the state withdraws a charge before plea, it means that they have to go back, put their house in order and decide whether they will or they will not [charge him].

“They may still charge him,” Dube added. She said Bronkhorst denied owning the sable antelopes found in the trucks.

The official Chronicle newspaper said the sable antelope smuggling charges had been withdrawn “for lack of evidence”.

The new charge against the hunter stems from the discovery of 29 animal skins and 10 animal skulls at his house on Monday. Prosecutors said he was supposed to have moved them by Saturday. Bronkhorst denies the charge and has paid bail, Dube says.

The lawyer said: “The charge is that he moved and possessed a trophy contrary to the conditions of a permit. He has a permit to move and possess the trophies but they say he contravened the terms of the permit.”