Soldiers tackle rhino poaching

Catherine Rice | 17 May 2012

CAPE TOWN - Soldiers have killed 11 suspected poachers in the Kruger National Park since they started patrolling the Mozambican border in 2010, Defence Minister Lindiwe Sisulu announced on Thursday.

At least 22 people were arrested and officials confiscated weapons, including AK47s.

The minister was speaking ahead of her department’s R37 billion budget vote in Parliament, Cape Town.

Sisulu said the soldiers were making a difference in the war against rhino poaching.

However, poachers are now targeting private game reserves.

She said officials were looking at ways to help owners of private game farms.

The defence department is working closely with police to catch poachers.

But Sisulu said in most cases, officials were not arresting the kingpins.

On Wednesday, police arrested a Vietnamese national and recovered R3 million in cash and rhino horns.

He was tracked down in Bedfordview, east of Johannesburg.

(Edited by Zethu Zulu)

Successful million rand Rhino horn raid

Rhino horns. File photo.
Image by: BOBBY YIP / REUTERS

Millions of rands in rhino horn were seized along with hundreds of thousands of US dollars in a raid on a Johannesburg flat.