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Six Zimbabwean nationals, found guilty of rhino poaching, appeared at the Makhanda High Court on Wednesday, 14 June 2023, for their long-awaited sentencing. The six felons were first arrested in July 2018. Almost five years after their arrest, Francis Chitiyo, Trymore Chauke, Misheck Chauke, Simba Masinge, Nhamo Muyambo, and Abraham Moyane have been sentenced to between 16 to 20 years for conspiracy to kill rhinos so that they could steal their horns and for possession of an unlawful firearm and ammunition.

Police thwarted an illegal pangolin sale worth thousands in the east of Pretoria with the help of an environmental activist. Police spokesperson Yeroboam Mbantsane said the environmental activist from the African Pangolin Working Group disguised himself as a potential buyer and approached two men, aged 34 and 27, from the Northern Cape who were selling a live pangolin.

The Balule Nature Reserve (BNR) reports that it has recorded not a single rhino killing in the past two years. The reserve is situated on the Olifants River, between Hoedspruit and Phalaborwa. It shares an unfenced border with the Greater Kruger, and forms part of the Associated Private Nature Reserves bordering the Park. Ryan says their worst period was between 2014 and 2018 when they lost 37 rhino in total to poaching. In 2017 alone, 17 animals were killed.

Field rangers at the Tygerberg Nature Reserve managed to apprehend poachers who were illegally removing bulbs and indigenous plants from one of the hiking trails. On Tuesday, 12 July 2022, the Tygerberg Nature Reserve staff were alerted by a visitor to three individuals who seemed to be removing plants from one of the hiking trails.

Pretoria-based police have yet again nabbed suspects who attempted to secretly sell an endangered species, a pangolin, which continues to be a problematic crime in the region. On Friday, four people were arrested during a street sale of a pangolin when the sellers were promised R50 000 in a police trap.

Interactive software that 'reads' and analyzes footprints left by black rhinoceroses can be used to monitor the movements of the animals in the wild, giving conservationists a new way to keep watch on the endangered species and help keep it safe from poachers, according to a new study.

The trial of six men facing rhino-poaching charges continued in the Grahamstown High Court this week. East London residents Francis Chitiyo, Trymore Chauke, Misheck Chauke, Simba Masinge and Nhamo Muyambo, and  Abraham Moyane were arrested in July 2018 during Operation Full Moon – the Eastern Cape Rhino Task Team’s code name for its anti-poaching operations. All six have since been in custody. They are accused on four counts.