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Cape Town - The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment (DFFE) said it would focus on disrupting local and international poaching this year. This comes after Cape Town metro police arrested a suspect for allegedly poaching 250 kilogrammes of abalone in Hout Bay last week. The bust has put a spotlight on poaching in the country. DFFE Minister Dion George commended the City of Cape Town's metro police for retrieving the poached abalone last Thursday. George said he would be making an extra effort to target poachers this year.

Two men who were arrested with 27 rhino horns at the OR Tambo six years ago have been handed down a hefty sentence. The men were on their way to Vietnam to sell the poached rhino horns with an estimated value of R2.9 million. Some South Africans were dissatisfied that the men received 15 years for poaching and believed they deserved to be locked up for longer.

The netizens were reacting to the arrest of five men caught harvesting the endangered 424 Clavias marebelius plants in Nieuwoudtville, Northern Cape. The SAPS reportedly pounced on the unsuspecting culprits on 27 June 2024 after receiving information about the alleged plant poaching. The men, aged between 21 and 30, had allegedly harvested about R2.7 million worth of the protected plant.

The number of endangered rhinos poached in Namibia reached a record high in 2022 after 87 animals were killed compared to 45 in 2021, official government data showed on Monday. Africa's rhino population has been decimated over the decades to feed demand for rhino horn, which, despite being made of the same stuff as rhino hair and fingernails, is prized in East Asia as jewellery and fake medicine. The horns are worth tens of thousands of dollars in illegal Asian markets. The ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism spokesperson Romeo Muyunda said poachers…

Johannesburg - South African National Parks (SANParks) welcomed the hefty sentence handed to two Mozambican nationals convicted for rhino poaching by the Skukuza Regional Court. Lucky Shihlangu and Sergio Mathebula were found guilty and sentenced to 18 years imprisonment on Monday. The two were arrested in the Malelane section of the Kruger National Park in September after they were found in possession of a hunting rifle, an axe, and two rhino horns.

Strides made with hefty sentences and fines for criminals endangering game rangers and animals. When Jimmy Mashopane of Winterveld, north of Pretoria, was arrested for shooting, killing and mutilating nine white rhino in a Free State game reserve, taking 14 horns estimated at more than R500,000, veteran prosecutor Antoinette Ferreira threw the book at him. That one of the rhino was a month away from giving birth "only enhances one's sense of abomination", judge Phillip Loubser said.

A total of 259 rhinos were poached for their horn in South Africa, over the first six months of 2022.

Four rhino have been killed at a game reserve just outside of Cape Town. Management at the Inverdoorn private game reserve said that an anti-poaching unit found the four rhino while on their regular patrols. One of the four was pregnant. A fifth rhino was wounded and is recovering.