9 July 2010 10:29:37 AM
Beeld South Africa
9 July 2010
www.beeld.com
Mr. Johan Roos (44) a hunter from the Musina area in Limpopo Province is one of the alleged kingpins behind the illegal rhino poaching syndicates operating in Zimbabwe. Roos is a convicted poacher.
A Beeld investigation shows that Roos smuggled hunting rifles stolen in South Africa and that have been fitted with silencers to Zimbabwe to kill rhinos in the country illegally.
Beeld discovered that Roos had been positively identified in Zimbabwe twice the last 11 months as the person supplying poachers with hunting rifles instructing them to kill rhinos.
One of the rifles a Winchester .375, was stolen in a farm attack in Limpopo last year. It was fitted with a silencer and supplied to poachers in Zimbabwe. The use of silencers on hunting rifles is illegal in Zimbabwe.
According to conservation protection agencies 95% of rhinos that are being hunted in Africa illegal are being killed in South Africa and Zimbabwe. Zimbabwe only has a 4% successful prosecution rate.
Roos was arrested in August last year in Zimbabwe after a wounded poacher admitted that a .303 silencers that was found in his possession had been given to him by Roos.
Roos was then arrested near the Beit Bridge border post. He spent three days in jail before he was released without good explanation. Earlier this year he was implicated by another poacher in another rhino poaching incident in Zimbabwe.
Beeld’s telephone call to Roos’s telephone this week was answered by a man identifying himself as Pieter, Roos’s brother.
He said that his brother is “completely innocent” and that his name in Zimbabwe was mentioned by a black man “who made a mistake”.
He further said that his brother was currently on holiday in Swaziland.
Roos’s cell phone records indicate that he has been in contact with well known Zimbabwean poachers. His passport further shows that he visited the country on more than 50 occasions over a period of two and a half years.
Supt. Hosiah Mukombero, Zimbabwe’s chief of police at the Beit Bridge border post have claimed that Roos is the kingpin behind a wildlife poaching syndicate.
According to Mukombero, Roos is also involved with the illegal hunting of hundreds of zebras in Zimbabwe whose skins are being smuggled into South Africa.
Mr. Charles Davy, ’n well respected Zimbabwean business man and key investor in the Bubye-valley conservancy said that South African hunters are behind 100% of illegal hunting and poaching in the south of Zimbabwe. Davy is the father of Chelsy, Prince Harry’s girlfriend.
“The problem started at the end of 2008 when we lost 12 rhinos. Until I saw the first .303 rifle fitted with a silencer I did not know it was possible to fit a silencerto a high calibre rifle” said Davy.
The smuggling syndicates are assisted by corrupt police and immigration officials.
Mr. Blondie Leathem, manager of Mazunga-safari’s in Bubye, said that the wildlife poaching is definitely being orchestrated and run out of Limpopo Province.
“The same people involved with the poaching of the zebra for their skin are also involved with the poaching of rhinos. It takes 5-6 guys at least 20 minutes to skin a zebra without damaging the skin. They realise the risks of being caught in high and therefore have decided to rather poach rhinos; it only takes a man 5 minutes with a sharp knife to remove the rhino’s horn.
Photographs of Roos can be viewed at:
http://www.beeld.com/Suid-Afrika/Nuus/Zim-renosters-uit-SA-gestroop-20100708
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