At the core of the state’s case is the evidence seized on a raid of the three men’s chalet at the Makana holiday resort in Makahanda in June 2016.
They were caught red-handed in the raid with a 10.27kg freshly harvested rhino horn valued at R1-million, a bloody saw, .22 dart gun and tranquiliser darts, M99 tranquiliser, cell phones and sim cards. DNA evidence has linked both the blood on the saw and the horn a magnificent white rhino named Campbell which had been poached the day before from nearby Bucklands Game reserve.
From that one raid, the state has used what it seized to try and weave together a complex web of circumstantial evidence involving ballistic evidence from the dart gun, cell phone usage patterns, and car hire and movement patterns, to link the three men to 12 other rhino poaching cases with almost identical modus operandi.
They are charged in relation to the Bucklands incident as well as the killing of two rhinos at a game farm in Jansenville, four rhinos in the Graaf-Reinet area, five from the Cradock area, and one from the Great Fish River.
Closing arguments underway at trial of trio accused of poaching 13 EC rhino
Closing argument in the trial of three men accused of poaching 13 Eastern Cape rhinos kicks off at 9.30am in the Grahamstown High Court today.
Jabulani Ndlovu, 40, Forget Ndlovu, 37, and Sikhumbuzo Ndlovu, 38, may know their fate by the end of the week after Judge Jeremy Pickering last month undertook to hand down judgment as soon as possible after argument in what has been a protracted and complicated trial.
Rhino accused run out of funds for their defence
At the core of the state’s case is the evidence seized on a raid of the three men’s chalet at the Makana holiday resort in Makahanda in June 2016.
They were caught red-handed in the raid with a 10.27kg freshly harvested rhino horn valued at R1-million, a bloody saw, .22 dart gun and tranquiliser darts, M99 tranquiliser, cell phones and sim cards. DNA evidence has linked both the blood on the saw and the horn a magnificent white rhino named Campbell which had been poached the day before from nearby Bucklands Game reserve.
From that one raid, the state has used what it seized to try and weave together a complex web of circumstantial evidence involving ballistic evidence from the dart gun, cell phone usage patterns, and car hire and movement patterns, to link the three men to 12 other rhino poaching cases with almost identical modus operandi.
They are charged in relation to the Bucklands incident as well as the killing of two rhinos at a game farm in Jansenville, four rhinos in the Graaf-Reinet area, five from the Cradock area, and one from the Great Fish River.
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