SUSPICIOUS RHINO POACHING ARRESTS AND RELATED HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN KWAZULU NATAL, SOUTH AFRICA 

INTRODUCTION

South Africa has suffered through tumultuous decades where many state run institutions were compromised and have therefore, not been able to operate effectively.  

This fact was widely demonstrated during the Zondo Commission of Enquiry,  also known as the Judicial Commission of Inquiry into Allegations of State Capture, Corruption and Fraud in the Public Sector including organs of the state which was instituted in 2018 and lasted until 2022.

The authors of a published report submitted by Corruption Watch and the Institute for Security Studies to the Zondo Commission, concentrated their research and published their devastating findings on the South African Police Services, most notably the Crime Intelligence Division, the Directorate  for Priority Crime Investigation (the HAWKS), the National Prosecuting Authority and to a lesser degree IPID the Independent Police Investigative Directorate. 

THE WILDLIFE CONSERVATION ARENA DID NOT REMAIN UNTOUCHED DURING STATE CAPTURE 

In terms of organised crime and state capture in the wildlife sector, a high-level government minister  was investigated by an international investigative unit in 2016 for his role in rhino poaching and the illegal rhino horn trade, the same minister has been mentioned during the Zondo Commission of Enquiry into State Capture in January 2021.

The content of the retrospective report titled Where Have All the Rhinos Gone? published by the South African NGO, EMS Foundation, in December 2021, provides numerous examples demonstrating the questionable involvement of current and ex-members of South Africa Police Service in rhino poaching activities and or the illegal trade of rhino horn.  

A second report was published in February 2024 titled South Africa's Rhino Horn Stockpiles are Intrinsic to the Illegal Trade WHERE HAVE ALL THE RHINOS GONE? Part Two.  In this Report the EMS Foundation drew stark attention to the fact that Dumisani Gwala (the so-called rhino poaching kingpin of KZN (sic)) and Wiseman Mageba were found not guilty due to the fact that there was no admissible or in fact any evidence to suggest that they were involved in any wildlife crime ever. 

Embarrassingly both the policemen involved with the questionable entrapment of these men, as well as the so-called investigation, were fired during the lengthy well publicized matter. The entrapment involved the misuse of rhino horn from rhino horn stockpiles in KwaZulu Natal. A subject which is under investigation at present. 

Specific research has been focused in the rhino rich areas of northern KwaZulu Natal and the Kruger National Park, since 2017.  There is evidence, some of which has resulted in the Minister of Police Bheki Cele being successfully sued  in the Durban High Court, of self-serving individuals who, whilst employed by the South African Police service, have operated with impunity.

THE SUSPICIOUS ARRESTS RELATED TO ALLEGED RHINO POACHING INCIDENTS  

Between 2005 - 2018 there were numerous entrapments and questionable arrests supposedly related to rhino poaching and the illegal trade in rhino horn in Northern KwaZulu Natal.  There was also a  suspicious arrest of a man who was allegedly attempting to trade with a piece of broken ivory.  He subsequently "committed suicide" while in detention, an incident reminiscent of the apartheid era of policing in South Africa.

Official records confirm that numerous suspicious arrests were made and dockets were filed at a number of rural police stations, always by the same group of individuals, members of the South African Police services, and the members of the same anti-poaching unit. 

On closer inspection the details of these arrests appear to be dramatic,  and comparatively speaking many are similar.  In some of these arrests, the alleged poachers and or trespassers lost their lives. 

Whilst these particular incidents received official police CAS numbers, many of these cases were never enrolled in a court of law, this because the evidence to support the arrests was insufficient according to the National Prosecuting Authority. 

It has been suggested that the motivation for these false arrests was two fold, one to use rhino horn from the State rhino horn stockpile for the entrapments and financial compensation.

Allegedly there was a privately funded monetary reward system in place.  This fund was set up, designed to attempt to halt the rhino poaching crisis in KwaZulu Natal.  Payments were made from this fund for information which was supposedly used for the successful arrest of rhino poachers.  The fund that was generously supported locally and internationally by donors. 

It is alleged that this conservation fund was criminally manipulated.  Upon the presentation of an arrest record, in other words a South African Police CAS Number, a financial reward was received.  The amount of money paid out was dependent on the difficulty of the investigation and the importance of the subsequent arrest.

HIGH LEVEL INVESTIGATION BY THE DIRECTORATE FOR PRIORITY CRIME INVESTIGATION

The  vast number of arrests, the numerous fatalities and the frequent use of the 252A entrapment method in northern KwaZulu Natal, drew the attention of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (HAWKS) in Pretoria.  

A high level official investigation into these suspicious arrests was undertaken in 2015 and 2016 in KwaZulu Natal.  Researchers met with the most senior members of this team in 2018.  

Whistle-blowers from within the anti-poaching unit that were on the scene at the questionable entrapments and arrests, donors to the aforementioned fund and eye witnesses to some of these questionable entrapments and irregular arrests have given written statements to the original investigation team. 

In 2016,  an international forensic investigator was requested by a specialised forensic unit of South African Police, involved in this high-level investigation, to examine the weapons found at these suspicious rhino poaching entrapment "crime scenes". 

The weapons  “found”  during these questionable arrests forensically matched the weapons used and found in the Kruger National Park in rhino poaching incidents and were traced to Mozambique.

This information was published in an international report in 2019.  The investigators involved with the publication of this report confirmed in the Report that an anti-poaching unit was carrying out extra-judicial killings pretending that the targets were rhino poachers in order to receive bonus payments. 

High-ranking Rangers in the Kruger National Park have also been suspected of carrying out suspicious arrest activities which also form part of a separate ongoing investigation. 

Unfortunately, according to written responses, the high level investigation in KwaZulu Natal was never concluded, because “State Capture Investigations have taken  precedence."  

THE DUMISANI GWALA MATTER 

The Wiseman Mageba and Dumisani Gwala entrapment and arrest in December 2014 is one example of these suspicious arrests carried out in KwaZulu Natal. 

Despite, supposedly being such an important national South African Police target, details of the supposedly critical arrest of Wiseman Mageba and Dumisani Gwala and the prior investigation were not supplied to the media by the South African Police.

Prior to the media reports in 2014 and again in 2016, about these two entrapment and arrests, there is no  evidence of these men ever being involved with the trade of rhino horn or rhino poaching. 

Three days after the arrest, the details of the dramatic entrapment were supplied, by their own admission, to the media by Barend Lottering, founder of Nyathi Anti-Poaching Unit and by Simon Naylor, the former head of conservation at andBeyond Phinda Private Game Reserve and one of the directors of the Munyawana Conservation Fund.

Both men were present and captured on the official Police video recording at the entrapment and multiple shooting of Dumisani Gwala. 

They jointly stated, in intricate detail and supplied official Police images to the media of the entrapment of Dumisani Gwala which according to them took place after an eight-month undercover operation.  

Dumisani Gwala, they concluded was apparently responsible for 80% of the rhino poaching that took place in KwaZulu Natal, no mention was made of Wiseman Mageba.

To give that comment some context, according to official Department of the Environment records, 99 rhino were poached in KwaZulu Natal in 2014.

There is no available evidence linking Dumisani Gwala or his co-accused to any of the rhino poaching cases in KwaZulu Natal. If there had been any evidence his bail would not have been R10 000.00.  Rhinos in Africa published this information in November 2017.

Jamie Joseph founder of Saving the Wild,  a registered charity in New Zealand, was commissioned, according to sources, by Nyathi Anti-Poaching Unit and Directors of the Munyawana Conservation Fund to assist with them Dumisani Gwala matter.

Her media campaign started on the 28th January 2016 after she spent a week at Phinda Private Game Reserve. 

Joseph has informed her followers, on various social media platforms,  that ex-Policeman Jean Pierre Van Zyl Roux was the mastermind behind the investigation, entrapment and arrest of Dumisani Gwala, he was also involved with numerous rhino poaching arrests for more than a decade. 

A DEPARTURE FROM THE TRUTH 

The police were required by the National Prosecuting Authority to film the entrapment of Wiseman Mageba and Dumisani Gwala as per the pre-requisites of permission granted to perform the 252A sting. 

The five year struggle by the Defence attorneys of the accused to obtain the copy of the official SAPS video of the entrapment of Wiseman Mageba and Dumisani Gwala which took place on the 18th December 2014, is well documented and was only finally successful in January 2019.  

The official Police video of the entrapments was viewed with the accused and officers from a South African Police Crime Intelligence Unit in 2019.

What is clearly evident from the official SAPS footage is that the evidence contained in the official police docket and the contents of all of the supplementary affidavits provided by other members of the South African Police, and the contents of all related media reports is factually and blatantly incorrect.  

The details of the entrapments, who was present at the entrapments, and the near fatal shooting of an unarmed Dumisani Gwala are highlighted on the videos.   

Furthermore, according to the official court record, testimony given on the 20th and 21st June 2019, Van Zyl Roux stated that he involved two undercover agents from South African Police Services based in Pretoria in the entrapment of Dumisani Gwala.  

In April 2021, one of these SAPS agents, a former Commander of a Kidnapping Unit in Crime Intelligence in Pretoria, was arrested by the HAWKS for extortion. 

The Prosecution must have been concerned about the official evidence recorded on Police body cameras, and the questionable reliability of two of the leading witnesses for the state who have subsequently been suspended from the South African Police Services charged with corruption. 

Van Zyl Roux, the investigator and arresting officer, was also suspended and then fired from the South African police service in 2017. 

The official charges on the original charge sheet in the Wiseman Mageba and Dumisani Gwala matter relate to those of attempting to deal in rhino horn, these charges are clearly recorded and signed by ex-Warrant Officer Jean Pierre van Zyl Roux yet the content of videos provide no such evidence. No rhino horn is exchanged in either video. 

Wiseman Mageba and Dumisani Gwala were granted bail of R10 000.00 each.  This bail amount was granted in a court of law by an experienced Magistrate with a Senior Prosecutor in attendance.  

The subsequent charge relating to the attempted murder of a policeman during the entrapment, was a fact curiously included in the official affidavits signed by the aforementioned state witnesses both of whom have been charged with corruption.

Furthermore, according to court records, on the 24th April 2019 when the trial began at Mtubatuba Magistrates Court, the attempted charge of murder was officially added the during the court proceedings.

Unfortunately, this critical addition will put into question the subject of bias and question the integrity and involvement of the National Prosecuting Authority in this unfortunate matter.

The content of the official Police videos clearly demonstrates there was no attempt by Dumisani Gwala to murder a policemen, what the video does clearly show is that unarmed Dumisani Gwala was shot numerous times whilst he was unarmed.

ALLEGATIONS OF A CORRUPT JUSTICE SYSTEM 

The most damaging allegations against the South African judicial system have been by those published by Jamie Joseph from 2016 to date. These allegations state that bribes have been paid to named, justice officials in order to keep Dumisani Gwala out of the courtroom and out of jail. 

In January 2017, according to Joseph, she was able to provide the necessary proof of the allegations that she made in 2016. 

Underscoring this narrative, she said that two witnesses contacted her via email on her website and in order to protect their identities she named them Fresh and Tortoise. She described her relationship with them in detail in a radio interview broadcast in New Zealand in October of 2017.  

The “evidence” provided by Fresh and Tortoise was apparently fact checked by ex Warrant Officer Jean Pierre van Zyl Roux and Colonel Jason McGray. 

Fresh admitted, according to Joseph, that he was employed by Advocate Ngwenya during 2015 and the early part of 2016, that he was hired to deliver cash bribes to Magistrate Ngcobo in the matter between the state and Warrant Officer Christopher Gumbi. 

Fresh also admitted, according to Joseph, that he was hired to pay Magistrate Shandu by attorney Ms Linda in the rhino related matter between the state and Dumisani Gwala.

Based upon this tested (sic) evidence,  according to media reports, McGray recommended that Magistrate Shandu be recused on the 9th of October 2017 at the Ngwelezane Magistrates's Court.

Advocate Noko, head of the NPA in KZN stated at the time,  in a media release, that the evidence in Fresh’s affidavit was not conclusive. Fresh’s affidavit and the supporting affidavits by McGray, Joseph and Van Zyl Roux were also not admitted into evidence.

Instead Prosecutor Yuri Gangai was removed as the prosecutor on the Wiseman Mageba and Dumisani Gwala matter.  

The allegations in Fresh’s affidavit are serious and as a result, the Gwala matter was transferred from Ngwelezane Court to Mtubatuba Court. This transfer caused yet further unnecessary delays in the trial which has been very costly for the State and for the defendants. 

McGray is a lead investigator in the Magistrates Commission enquiry into the conduct of Regional Court President for KwaZulu Natal Division Judge Eric Nzimande.

The Fresh allegations have, according to media publications, also suggested that there maybe a link between Magistrate Ngcobo and Magistrate Shandu and Eric Nzimande.

However, the secretary for the Magistrates Commission stated, in writing in 2018, that there is no evidence linking any rhino related matters to the Eric Nzimande.

The allegations supposedly made by Fresh and Tortoise, and checked by the South African Police service, are serious and damaging to the reputation of the South African judicary.

Subsequent research has revealed the true identity of Fresh and Tortoise as well as their alias's. Despite the fact that the content of their Affidavits which was going to be attempted to be used against Magistrate Ngcobo and Magistrate Shandu supported by Jamie Joseph, JP van Zyl Roux and Colonel McGray on the 9th October 2017, was supposedly checked, there are gross fundamental logistical errors.   

Similarly, research has provided the bank records of internet transfers and the damaging content of accompanying communications where sums of money were paid to Fresh for this testimony and for the interviews he gave to the South African and international media. 

FRESH AND TORTOISE RETRACT THEIR AFFIDAVITS AND PROVIDE PROOF OF PAYMENT FOR THE ORIGINAL CONTENT OF THE AFFIDAVIT USED BY THE MEDIA TO DISCREDIT MAGISTRATES AND LAWYERS IN KZN

The content of new Affidavits provided in September 2021 by the people known as Fresh and Tortoise with their true identities verified and made public, suggest that they were coerced into providing the contents of the Affidavits against the judiciary by Jamie Joseph and ex Warrant Officer Jean Pierre van Zyl.  

They have signed Affidavits retracting all the information previously given to Jamie Joseph, Colonel McGray and the Magistrates Commission.

Furthermore, Fresh and Tortoise have stated in Affidavits in 2021, that the information contained in affidavits and interviews conducted with Alastair Leithead from the BBC and to Sam Sole from amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism was false.  

MINISTER OF POLICE SUED IN SUSPICIOUS FALSE RHINO POACHING ARREST IN KWAZULU NATAL 2022

In the matter between Christopher Bhekani Gumbi and the Minister of Police CASE NUMBER: D7156/2016    which was reported in numerous media articles one of which is titled Gumbi Fell Prey to Dishonest Cops. 

Three weeks after the entrapment of Dumisani Gwala, Warrant Officer Christopher Gumbi was investigating an illegal operation in Jozini involving the rendition of foreign national persons from Mozambique then luring and placing them in certain game parks in KwaZulu Natal and then killing them under the guise of being rhino poachers.

Whilst investigation the involvement of the South African Police in these kidnappings, entrapments and arrests he was arrested by the very same people he was investigating.

His arrest was obviously in order to prevent him from continuing any further investigation into the organised crime and corruption.  

As mentioned previously, Warrant Officer Christopher Gumbi’s case to which the aforementioned High Court matter refers, was dismissed by Magistrate Ncgobo.  In 2022 he successfully sued the Minister of Police for this wrongful arrest. 

The Judge in the High Court in Durban also stated  that Christopher Gumbi was the subject the content of newspaper articles clearly instigated by the same individuals who arrested him.  

Whilst Jean Pierre van Zyl Roux, who was suspended and then fired from the Police Services in 2017,  was undoing cross-examination in the State VS Wiseman Mageba and Dumisani Gwala matter, he did not, according to official court records and confirmed by National Prosecuting Authority attended a single court appearance from the 7th February 2020 until a new Magistrate was appointed and the trial resumed in May 2023.

Although subpoenaed JP van Zyl Roux and Barnard Lottering never attended the Gumbi matter High Court in Durban. 

WISEMAN MAGEBA AND DUMISANI GWALA ARE FOUND “NOT GUILTY”

After nine years on the 28th July 2023 the Magistrate at the Mtubatuba found that the evidence from the State was inadmissible. All charges were dropped against the two accused except for one - resisting arrest.  

INTIMIDATION 

There are currently a number of investigations being carried out about serious the intimidation and the assassination of various witnesses involved with exposing the truth about these suspicious arrests in KwaZulu Natal.

State resources, and the South African Police Services have been inadvertently used to implicate ordinary South Africans in order to intimidate them in order to keep quiet about these false arrests in KwaZulu Natal.  

Ordinary South African citizens have been arrested only to have the matters thrown out of court due to lack of credible evidence. 

Furthermore, there is a forensic investigation  into the infiltration of the South African Police computer network where false information has been recorded about ordinary South Africans in order to carry out these false arrests. 

CLASS ACTION LITIGATION

Following the successful High Court matter involving Christopher Gumbi, victims of these false arrests, the people falsely arrested as rhino poachers and the family members of the deceased victims killed as alleged rhino poachers can satisfy the court that there is a case that is legally tenable and that a prima facie case exists on the evidence they can provide. 

Section 38(c) of the South African Constitution provides the basis for any natural person to bring a class action in respect of an infringement or threat to a right in the Bill of Rights (Chapter 2 of the Constitution). 

The South African government is apparently committed to wiping out corruption.  We welcome the opportunity for the completion of the high-level investigations in Northern KwaZulu Natal and we request a public enquiry. 

KINDLY NOTE

THANK YOU FOR SIGNING THE PETITION PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT IF YOU DO DECIDE TO COMMENT THAT YOUR COMMENTS ARE FREE OF RACIAL INUENDO OR HATE SPEECH.