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Seven suspects aged between 17 and 47 were arrested for poaching and being in possession of wildlife and weapons. According to a provincial police spokesperson, Brigadier Selvy Mohlala, some wildlife species, mostly more than 20 antelope, two hunting rifles, some bush knives, some ammunition and a light delivery vehicle were all confiscated from the Mauchsburg Plantation in Pilgrim’s Rest this morning, Monday December 4, at about 03:00.

Three poachers were caught red-handed with a hunting rifle fitted with a silencer and ammunition in the Kruger National Park (KNP). According to KNP spokesperson Isaac Phaahla, the arrests were made in the Stolznek Section on Tuesday. In the first six months of 2023 a total of 231 rhinos were killed in South Africa at an average of just under 1.3 rhinos per day.

A suspect has been arrested after being found with two endangered pangolins inside his home in Kuruman in the Northern Cape.

Lion bones are used to replace tiger bones in fortified tiger wine and Traditional Chinese Medicines. Lion bones are also carved into jewellery. South Africa's legal trade of lion bones to Asia has opened up a fast growing illegal trade of the animal carcass. On Friday, a 43 year old man was arrested for the illegal possession of lion bones destined for Asia.

The FF Plus called for intensified efforts to curb poaching of wild animals in the Manyeleti Game Reserve, while the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency said the situation had been stabilised after a hectic December of dog poaching and snaring.

A 32-year-old poacher, Freedom Siyabonga Ndlovu, was sentenced to 32 years of direct imprisonment for offences related to poaching by the Skukuza Regional Court. The accused had a hand in the killing of three rhinos.

This past weekend, police have seized large quantities of abalone in the Eastern Cape and Free State with both consignments allegedly heading to Bloemfontein. In the latest arrest, a 46-year-old suspect was apprehended and police recovered abalone worth over R1 million.

Four men were arrested for allegedly attempting to sell two endangered pangolins for R200 000 in Mahikeng, North West.

An alleged rhino poacher, who has been on the run from authorities since 2019, was rearrested in KaBokweni.

Police arrested 26-year-old man on the N6 Road with 16 refuse bags filled with abalone.

In an unrelated incident, an integrated operation led to the arrest of two suspects in Gansbaai on Friday, 17 February 2023. The team set up a vehicle checkpoint on the R43 between Gansbaai and Stanford and stopped a suspicious minibus taxi. They searched the vehicle and the occupants and confiscated 3608 units of abalone. This has an estimated to have a street value of R1.4 million.

A ranger's job is never done. Even in the midst of the floods the Kruger National Park is currently experiencing, some rangers detained one of their own hiding two other individuals with poaching equipment in their possession.

A 47-year-old accused will appear in the Kabokweni Magistrate Court on Tuesday, 7 February 2023, after his DNA was linked to rhino horns found during a search and seizure operation.

The police in the Eastern Cape are searching for poachers who shot, killed, and dehorned two rhinos on a safari farm in Paterson on Wednesday evening, 1 February.

Shiuhau Chen, a Chinese national, was found guilty on three counts of illegally dealing in rhino horns and contravening the Immigration Act in the Kempton Park Regional Court on Friday January 20.

Police said four women are in custody for the possession of lion cubs they were selling in Boksburg North.

The Kruger National Park (KNP) expects a decline in rhino poaching incidents due to heavy sentences imposed on five poachers in November. The acting managing executive of the KNP, Dr Danny Govender, commended the Skukuza Regional Court for imposing lengthy jail terms in recent cases and said it shows they are making good progress in fighting rhino poaching.

On-duty field rangers working at the Tshokwane Section of the park spotted two sets of footprints at Sundwini and followed up the trail using tracking dogs. Mohlala said the two men were arrested and found in possession of a high-calibre hunting rifle with a silencer, four rounds of live ammunition, an axe, backpacks and food. "Through an investigation it was discovered that the two are from Mozambique and did not
have valid documentation to be in South Africa." He said they pleaded guilty during their first day in court, and hence were sentenced…

Increased spot checks of vehicles inside the park will check for park offences such as possession of contraband and verification of identities and booking receipts of occupants inside the vehicles. Technologies being implemented include vehicle number plate recognition, remote vehicle monitoring, radar surveillance and night flying with specialised infrared cameras.

SANParks says the proliferation of wire snares in the Lowveld is linked to criminal networks.

A man has been arrested in Hazyview for being in possession of a Pangolin, following a tip-off from a local community member. On Tuesday September 27, a private game reserve near Hazyview received the tip-off that a white Bantam bakkie was driving around town looking for a buyer for the Pangolin which is the world's most trafficked animal species.

A total of 82 rhinos have been poached in the Kruger National Park between January and June this year.

Three men who had allegedly poached the four rhinos and were able to dehorn three of them, appeared in the Bushbuckridge Magistrate's Court on Monday July 4.

Three alleged poachers were arrested in the Kruger National Park after allegedly killing four rhinos on Friday July 1.

It is suspected that setting snares in the Lowveld has increased by 20% from last season while the Kruger National Park has had an increase of 50%.

A 47-year-old man was sentenced to nine years' imprisonment on Friday for illegal poaching. Sam Khoza (47) was apprehended in the Kruger National Park on November 11, 2020, when a shoot-out between field rangers in the park, Khoza and his two accomplices ensued. A statement by a provincial police spokesperson, Brig Selvy Mohlala, said two of the suspects evaded arrest, but Khoza, who sustained some injuries during the shooting, was captured. He was found in possession of a rifle, some ammunition as well as a silencer.

Five people were arrested in Midrand, Gauteng for pangolin trafficking and contravening the National Environmental Management-Biodiversity (NEMBA) Act. The Hawks pounced on the suspects after receiving a tip-off.

Both of the convicted rhino poachers had entered the Kruger National Park, and one of them was found to be in the country illegally.

The reopening of the Skukuza Regional Court is producing positive results, with a 100% conviction rate for rhino poachers over the past two years. The court had been closed by the Mpumalanga Regional Court president Naomi Engelbrecht in August 2019, who wanted it to be moved to Mhala Court about 100 kilometres from Skukuza. However, this decision was overruled and the court was reopened again in April 2021.

Sibusiso Mahlaule (29), George Manyise (30) and Rodrigues Ngobeni (34) did not escape the might of the law and were sentenced by the Skukuza Regional Court for poaching on Friday March 11. The three were caught by field rangers in Kruger National Park on April 18, 2021. It was reported that the rangers, working at Pretoriuskop, had discovered some tracks that brought the presence of intruders to their attention.

Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) spokesperson in the Western Cape said the elephant ivory dealer entered into a plea agreement with the State. The court sentenced Ziwande, 38, to "a fine of R10 000 wholly suspended for five years" for the offence, said Hani. He pleaded guilty to one charge under the Contravention of Section 42(1)(b). Ziwande was arrested on 14 May 2021, after the police’s Crime Intelligence provided the Hawks’ Serious Organised Crime Investigation team in Cape Town with a tip-off.

Mpumalanga's AB Steyn and Limpopo's Dawie Groenewald appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court on February 23 and 24. The pair's previous appearance was on December 10 last year when the case was postponed for the fourth time. Some issues were raised by each of their legal representatives yesterday including that the state was dragging its feet in the case, that the state should be held responsible for the teams' travel costs because of the delays, and that documents were not presented in the way they were supposed to be.

A 25-year-old man was convicted and sentenced by Kuruman Regional Court after trying to sell a pangolin for R200 000.

Swift justice has been meted out for this unfortunate smuggler on Wednesday, after he was promptly arrested at OR Tambo for being in possession of no more than eleven separate rhino horn packages.

A rhino horn trader has been sentenced to 14 years in jail, the longest ever prison term a Vietnamese court has handed down for the crime, a local conservation group said on Wednesday. Vietnam is both a consumption hub and popular transit point for the multi-billion-dollar trade in animal parts. Authorities have long vowed to stem the flow of illegal wildlife crisis-crossing its borders, but experts have warned the black market persists thanks to weak law enforcement.

The 38-year-old poacher was sentenced to 19 years behind bars after a white rhinoceros was killed in Lower Sabie in 2014.

An official from the North West Department of Economic Development, Environment, Conservation and Tourism will appear in the Mmabatho Magistrate’s Court on Monday 11 October after he was arrested in connection with illegal rhino horn trade. The official and the owner of a security company were arrested on Thursday afternoon in relation to alleged contraventions of the National Environmental Management: Biodiversity Act, the Rhino Norms and Standards, and contravention of permit conditions.

A 34-year old policeman is recovering in hospital after he was shot and injured during a shootout with rhino poachers in Vredefort in the Free State on Tuesday night.

The court case against the alleged poaching kingpin, Joseph "Big Joe" Nyalungu, has been postponed until February 14, 2022, when his trial will expectedly begin in the Skukuza Regional Court. According to Monica Nyuswa, the spokesperson or the National Prosecuting Authority, the trial was postponed because the court’s recording equipment was out of order. Nyalungu would have appeared with his South African co-accused on Tuesday September 21, while the accused from Mozambique were expected to appear on Thursday September 23.

AB Steyn and Dawie Groenewald appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate's Court again on September 17 after they had been arrested in Mbombela on July 20. The pair was arrested for the alleged possession of 19 rhino horns on July 20, and after appearing in court on July 23 for the first time, they were released on bail of R50 000 each. Following their appearance today (September 17) the case was again postponed to December 10 for further investigation.

Some 125 people have been arrested for rhino poaching and rhino horn trafficking across the country in the past six months. According to the Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment while the national lockdowns curbed the movement of people to halt the spread of Covid-19 in 2020 contributed to a decrease in rhino poaching, however the lifting of the stringent lockdown regulations appears to have seen an increase in rhino poaching in the first six months of 2021.

At least 249 rhinos were killed in the first six months of this year in South Africa. The bulk of the killings happened at the Kruger National Park, where 132 rhinos were killed.

SANParks and security partners in the Greater Kruger Region are jointly implementing a range of interventions as part of an integrated wildlife management approach to counter the effects of wildlife crime, in particular rhino poaching.

The men were arrested on Wednesday afternoon for the illegal possession of 19 rhino horns.

The two men who were arrested for the illegal possession and selling of rhino horns on Wednesday, appeared in the Nelspruit Magistrate’s Court on Thursday afternoon. They are Schalk Abraham Steyn (48), better known to Lowvelders as AB, and Limpopo game farmer, Dawid Groenewald (52).

Gunshots ensued when a private walking safari concession came across suspected poachers in the Kruger National Park. SANParks announced today that a suspected poacher was fatally wounded in a contact situation with guides of a private walking safari concession in the Kruger National Park (KNP). The incident took place in the early hours of Friday July 2. The guides were on a walk with one guest when they came across a group of three suspected poachers.

Members of the Hawks Organised Investigation Unit searched a vehicle and found rhino horns that suspects were attempting to sell. "The pair were arrested during a buy and bust operation where they allegedly attempted to sell the horns. The suspects' vehicle was searched and two rhino horns worth approximately R2.4 million were found," Rikhotso said.

"In the last couple of weeks, we found in certain areas a marked increase in the number of snares and a zebra was just left to rot where it had died, caught up in the snare." "We need to ask people to walk regularly and look for the snares. Quite often, they will set the snares and then they don't return in time to see if the animal has been caught in the snare and the animal is just left to rot." The Msunduzi Municipality has also raised concern about the rise in poaching at the reserve in recent weeks.

The Skukuza Regional Court has handed down a stiff sentence to a 34- year-old man from Mozambique who was recently convicted of several poaching related crimes including the illegal hunting and killing of rhino.

The suspected ivory smuggler from Alberton is facing the full might of the law this week, after two elephant tusks were found in his possession.