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Police arrest six suspected rhino poachers in Limpopo and Gauteng; recover horns, guns and ammunition.

It's not rocket science. Harsher sentences - both locally and abroad - need to be dished out to those who poach rhinos for their horns, or smuggle those horns to other countries. The South African government reported 448 rhinos were killed across the country in 2022 - just three fewer than the previous year. It's welcoming to hear a Singapore court on Friday sentenced Gumede Sthembiso Joel, a 33- year-old South African man, to two years in jail for smuggling rhino horns. It was the heaviest sentence handed down by the city state for trafcking wildlife parts.

Two men are expected to appear in the Vryheid magistrate's court after they were arrested with two rhino horns and a rie hidden in their car's engine compartment. KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Lt-Col Nqobile Gwala said ofcers acted on information about the suspects and spotted their vehicle on the R34 travelling towards Vryheid and a high-speed chase ensued.

Dit gaan baie goed met Venasha, die renosterkalfie wat in Oktober 2022 by die Rhino Momma-projek aangekom het, nadat sy deur haar ma verwerp is. Volgens Juliette Erdtsieck, haar versorger van die afgelope 19 maande, bly Venasha onder meer saam met drie renosterkoeie en hul kalwers in 'n kamp. "Sy word nou regtig baie groot en is 'n regte renoster! Sy het op 26 November haar laaste bottel melk gekry en aan die einde van die jaar is sy na die groot kamp verskuif," sê Juliette. Die Rhino Momma-projek in Namibië het in 2022 in een maand twee wees-renosterkalfies gekry.

The National Assembly yesterday approved an amendment to the Nature Conservation Ordinance to increase fines related to elephant and rhino poaching from the current N$200 000 to a maximum of N$25 million. The period of imprisonment for convicted rhino or elephant poachers would be increased to a maximum of 25 years, up from 20 years.

The Ministry of Environment and Tourism yesterday tabled a bill for an amendment to the Nature Conservation Ordinance to increase fines related to rhino and elephant poaching from the current N$200 000 maximum penalty to a maximum penalty of N$25 million.

Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) has thrown its weight behind efforts to fight rhino poaching in the country, particularly inside the Etosha National Park.

The Chinese national who smuggled 18 rhino horns through Hosea Kutako International Airport and was arrested in South Africa, had received the rhino horns in Windhoek. Ye Zhiwei, 28, who pleaded guilty to charges of importing the rhino horns without the necessary permits in the Kempton Park Regional Court in
South Africa, said in his plea explanation that he had received 15 black rhino horns and three white rhino horns at a hotel in Windhoek.

Disturbing revelations pertaining to the plunder of our natural resources have come to the fore, not for the first time either, but it is the trend that is beginning to ruffle the sustainable feathers of our flora and fauna. Concerted efforts are being made in order to win the battle against the poaching of our endangered rhino and elephants as sophisticated poaching syndicates seem to have taken advantage of the loopholes and weaknesses in the anti-poaching strategies currently in place.

The highest office in the country has joined the outcry against the spate of poaching and plundering of wildlife resources currently experienced in the country. President Hage Geingob, during the opening of the 2017 legal year, called upon parliament to send him the necessary amendments to the relevant laws to increase penalties so that he can sign them into law for the courts to enforce them.

Foreigners who are found guilty of wildlife crimes should serve out their sentences, be deported and should not be allowed back in Namibia. This is the view of environment minister Pohamba Shifeta, who says the Nature Conservation Ordinance Act is outdated and far too lenient in its sentencing of poachers. According to Shifeta, the ministry is in the process of amending the Act and proposed fines for poaching will range from N$100 000 to N$25 million.

A young rhino cow that was shot multiple times by poachers at a farm near Gobabis in December, has died of her wounds.

Namibia has so far dehorned 451 black rhinos at a cost of over N$14,5 million in an effort to discourage poaching in the country. Government has been dehorning rhinos since 2014. The Ministry of Environment and Tourism makes use of experts contracted to dehorn black rhinos in the country's national game parks, including Etosha, Namib-Naukluft, Mamili, and the Waterberg Plateau Park.