Africa Wild

29/09/2017
By Helene Eloff

SKUKUZA – Two men, who posed as job applicants in the Kruger National Park (KNP), were arrested on suspicion of rhino-poaching activities on Wednesday.

According to a reliable source, the two men and one accomplice gained entrance to the park on the premise that they were seeking employment with Murray & Roberts. The company coordinates the construction of Skukuza Conference Lodge. “They were granted access after they had provided KNP officials with their identity documents,” said the source. “It has since been discovered that these IDs may have been fake,” he added.

According to Murray & Roberts’ media executive, Ed Jardim, he was not aware of the incident.

The men used two modes of transport – they drove to the park in a taxi and boarded a bus in the Skukuza area. “The three were being driven from Skukuza to Malalane when a game driver became suspicious and alerted the police,” said the source. It is not clear what exactly caused the game driver to become wary of them.

According to Skukuza SAPS spokesman, WO Willie Broodryk, the men were allegedly in possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition. “We believe that they had intended to poach rhino,” he said. The bus in which they had been travelling was confiscated and two of the men taken into custody. The third escaped.

Broodryk added that four persons – the two men and their taxi and bus drivers – were charged with conspiring to commit a crime in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate’s Court yesterday.

Lowvelder is in the process of obtaining their names and will keep tabs on this developing story. The men have not applied for bail yet.

This raises all sorts of concerns about the upcoming hotel construction!!

all is good to make money

Far too much development and movements of people to the developments , about time they get some control at the gates ,these seem to be a constant weak point for the parks not even poachers coming through fences just driving through the main gates .Would think that all employees of the contractors would have some permanent form of identification and biometric checks done at gates to check them in and out at the very least.

These thieves are opportunistic and very clever

Alf wrote:These thieves are opportunistic and very clever

indeed

“They were granted access after they had provided KNP officials with their identity documents,” said the source. “It has since been discovered that these IDs may have been fake,” he added.

I think this is a lie, and intended to mask the deficiencies of the new scanning system of ID's at gates. My personal opinion only, but poachers will get past that system easily with a kickback. But in a sense a clever move moving from taxi to contractor vehicle, if at all true.


Africa Wild have been warning about the dangers regarding poaching with contractors for MANY years!

As I have said before, the scanning has no sense at all. The criminals are always ahead and with the level of corruption there is always a way.