Counsel for three alleged rhino poachers on Monday opted not to cross-examine a state witness who linked a saw seized in a 2016 rhino poaching incident to a yellow paint chip collected from a rhino poaching scene in Cradock some years before.
The trial of Jabulani Ndlovu, 40, Forget Ndlovu, 37, and Sikhumbuzo Ndlovu, 38 – who face 50 charges related to the poaching of 13 rhino throughout the Eastern Cape over five years – seems to slowly be drawing to a close.
The state alleges in the indictment that the three men were caught red-handed in a raid on a holiday chalet in Makhanda in 2016 with a 10.27kg freshly harvested rhino horn valued R1-million, a bloody saw, .22 dart gun and tranquiliser darts, M99 tranquiliser, cellphones and SIM cards.
The raid took place within hours of the poaching of a magnificent white rhino from nearby Bucklands Game reserve.
They are charged in relation to the Bucklands incident as well as the killing of two rhino at a game farm in Jansenville, four rhino in the Graaff-Reinet area, five from the Cradock area, and one from the Great Fish River.
Witness SAPS forensics expert Col Gertruida van Huyssteen said late last year that forensic tests showed that the paint from the flake collected in 2015 at the Cradock poaching scene was chemically indistinguishable from that of the yellow paint on the saw seized in the Makhanda incident.
While she acknowledged that there may be many more identical yellow saws in the country, she said the paint flake collected was also a physical match to a chip on the saw. A photograph showed how the flake of paint fitted like a puzzle piece into a chip on the saw.
Advocate Terry Price, SC, on Monday indicated they would not cross-examine Van Huyssteen on this evidence as it was a matter best left to argument.
The trial resumes on Tuesday morning...