The Tlhabane Magistrate Court near Rustenburg in the North West has remanded four suspects in custody after their appearance on Monday.
Rather Mahomed, Joao Seven, Abraham Khoza and Usuf Mikilo were arrested on Friday on charges of dealing with rhino horn.
The four were arrested during a sting operation by the provincial police who received a tip off about the suspects who were reportedly planning to sell a rhino horn for R65 000.
Spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Tinyiko Mathebula says the information was operationalized and the police arrested the four suspects soon after making a transaction.
“They have been charged with dealing in rhino horn under National Environmental Biodiversity Act 10 of 2004.
All four suspects were remanded in custody and will appear in the same court on 20 March 2024 for bail application,” said Mathebula.
According to the Miniter of Fisheries and Forestry Barbra Creecy, 499 rhinos were killed throughout the country in 2023 with KwaZulu-Natal recording an alarming number of 397 killed in the same year.
The minister said reasons giver for the devastating loss of rhinos in South Africa, particularly over the past few years, were highlighted in the 2021 EMS Foundation publication of Where Have All the Rhinos Gone?
She added that a determination of the significant loss of rhinos are not only due to the illegal killing of rhinos, particularly over the past two decades, but the “unacceptable numbers are also the result of poor problematic policy and management decisions in the direct involvement of some of South Africa’s professional trophy hunter and corrupt members of the SAPS.”