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Namibia: Poachers Plunder Omaruru Farm
22 October 2013




MORE than 30 wild animals were trapped in wire snares before either being left to rot, chopped up and the meat hung to dry on farm Okapekaha, which belongs to Adrian Lang, near Omaruru last week.

The meat alone (that was used) was worth over N$70 000, but if the animals were spared for trophy hunting instead, the calculated loss would then be more than N$150 000.

"It's been going on like this for 25 years. I have lost millions of dollars. We have tried everything but nothing helps," he told The Namibian on Sunday.

Lang said he has had enough experience with poachers and that in fact, on 28 October, he will be appealing the sentence passed in April by the Swakopmund Magistrate's court which sent him to prison for killing a suspected poacher on his property.

He spent three months in jail before he was released on N$40 000 bail pending the hearing of an appeal in the High Court.

A few months after his release, a neighbour who flew over Lang's farm, informed him of an 'abattoir' on the property. GPS coordinates were taken and wildlife officers of the Ministry of Environment and Tourism set out to have a closer look at the damage.

"The poachers found an excluded spot where no one comes. It's on a game track between the waterholes and there is grass," Lang explained.

Wire snares were found along the way; most empty but not all. One held an oryx, which was still alive but too weak. A bullet to its head was an act of mercy. Another oryx was also still trapped in a snare, causing a deep gash to the neck as it attempted to free itself. He was more fortunate when the trackers cut him loose. He managed to run into the thicket and disappeared.

Further down the road, the bush abattoir was discovered. Whole carcasses still in the process of being skinned; a decapitated eland, Zebras and disemboweled, cut up and shredded oryx lay on the ground, rotting. Meat and blood stained the soil, rocks and trees. Wire lines heavy with biltong stretched from tree to tree. Five bags packed full of already dried biltong were stashed on one side.

"This was not a matter of feeding oneself or a hungry family. This was an ongoing lucrative business," said Lang.

Later, as the area was being scanned, the spoils collected and snares destroyed, a suspected poacher was allegedly seen moving through the trees. Rubber bullets and salt hailed down on him, and although it is suspected that he may have been hit, he managed to escape.

"I hope he will end up in hospital somewhere, giving me the opportunity to lay a charge of theft and poaching against him," Lang said, doubting it though because the perpetrators would be too scared to show their faces.

"It just won't stop. It's a government problem. It's the farmers' problem and its the people's problem. If I had the permission to shoot, I would probably shoot a poacher a day. Then, maybe, it would stop," he said.

Lang was convicted of culpable homicide, two counts of negligent discharge of a firearm and one count of unlawful possession of a firearm in November last year. The 63-year-old offender was sentenced to an effective three-year jail sentence on 15 April.

Lang was prosecuted in connection with an incident in which he shot at a suspected thief, one Gerson Sabatha, at Okapekaha Farm near Omaruru on 26 April 2009 and a second incident in which a suspected poacher, Joseph Hamukwaya (43), was killed while another alleged poacher was shot at on 14 October 2010.

After hearing arguments on the appeal, Acting Judge Maphios Cheda ruled on Wednesday that Lang may be released on N$40 000 bail.