Judgement date set in hunter’s murder trial

The Namibian

Judgement date set in hunter’s murder trial

By: WERNER MENGES

THE five men who have been on trial in the High Court for the past month in connection with the murder of a professional hunter during an alleged poaching excursion in the Outjo area near the end of 2006 are set to get an idea of their fate at the start of December.

The last testimony in the trial of the five men was given before Judge Louis Muller on Thursday last week. State prosecutor Lourens Campher and defence lawyers Boris Isaacks and Lucia Hamutenya now have to file written arguments to be considered by Judge Muller, who has set December 1 as the date when he will be delivering his judgement in the trial.
The trial of Willem Peter (38), Gert Nuxabeb (25), his brother, Jafet Nuxabeb (21), John Khamuxab (20) and Johannes Heiki (67) started on September 17 when all five of them pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, stock theft, theft of a motor vehicle, the theft of a hunting rifle, ammunition and compact discs, defeating the course of justice, the altering, mutilating or cancelling of a registered livestock brand, and possession of a firearm and ammunition without a licence.
The person who was set to be the first accused in the trial, Immanuel Isako, was not in court for the start of the trial or thereafter. Isako (35) died in Police custody on May 21 this year.
The allegations against the five accused and Isako are that all of them, except for Heiki, were involved in the poaching of a heifer on a farm next to the main road between Outjo and Kamanjab during the night of December 6 to 7 2006.
The animal was shot by Isako, who was accompanied by Peter, the Nuxabeb brothers and Khamuxab when he went on the poaching trip that evening, the court heard during the trial.
The shot heifer had already been loaded onto the back of Isako’s bakkie when professional hunter Daniel van Vuuren arrived at the scene.
Van Vuuren confronted Isako about the animal, the court was told by two prosecution witnesses who were at the scene and also by the four charged men who were with Isako. After an exchange of words between Van Vuuren and Isako, Van Vuuren turned and was walking back to his bakkie when Isako fired a shot at him with the rifle with which he had earlier shot the heifer.
Van Vuuren was shot through his pelvis.
Isako then readied the gun to fire another shot, aiming the rifle at Van Vuuren’s head – but then the gun failed to go off, the Judge was told.
One of the eyewitnesses at the scene told the court that Isako, Jafet Nuxabeb and Khamuxab carried the wounded Van Vuuren off the road. Nuxabeb and Khamuxab denied this. The witness also claimed that he heard – but did not see – Van Vuuren being beaten where he had been taken into the grass next to the road.
Van Vuuren (43) was found dead at that spot the next morning.
In the meantime, Isako and company had transported the stolen heifer to the nearby farm where Isako was farming and Heiki was also living. There, Isako’s cattle brand was put on the skin of the slaughtered heifer and Heiki helped Isako to hide the skin, a rifle, ammunition and other items that Isako stole from Van Vuuren’s vehicle, it is alleged.
By December 8 2006, all six suspects had been arrested.
The court heard that two tubs of car exhaust repair putty that were found at the scene were crucial in putting the Police on the trail of Isako and his co-accused.
When Police officers investigating the case made enquiries at an Outjo garage about the exhaust putty, they were told that Isako and Peter had been at the garage on December 6 2005 and that they bought two tubs of that sort of putty.
The court also heard that the .308 rifle that Isako was accused of having used to kill Van Vuuren is registered in the name of Richardt Thomson (34), an Outjo resident who is awaiting his trial in the High Court on charges of robbing and murdering an 81-year-old man at Walvis Bay in early July 2005.
Thomson refused to give a statement to the Police on his firearm, Judge Muller heard.
Heiki is the only one of the remaining five accused to be free on bail.

The Namibian

3 accused of stealing three sable antelopes
By: WERNER MENGES

AN Otjiwarongo area farmer and two co-accused remain in custody after making a first court appearance yesterday on charges stemming from allegations that they stole three sable antelope from the Waterberg Plateau Park.
Farmer Hans Erno Diekmann (51), Herbert Wolfgang Henle (47) and Jurgen Richard Benz (35) appeared before Magistrate Stanley Tembwe in the Otjiwarongo Magistrate’s Court on charges of theft, hunting of protected game, and transporting game without a permit.
Their case was postponed to November 2, and it was ordered that they would remain in custody in the meantime.
According to the Regional Commander of the Namibian Police in the Otjozondjupa Region, Deputy Commissioner Joseph Anghuwo, the three men were arrested during the midnight hours between Friday and Saturday this past weekend.
Anghuwo said the Police had received information that they were planning to transport three sable antelope that had escaped from Waterberg Plateau Park.
Anghuwo said nature conservation officials helped set up a roadblock, but the arrests were made at Diekmann’s farm. He said the prized animals were found on the farm where they had been loaded onto a truck.
The three men are also alleged to have used a helicopter as part of the transport operation, Anghuwo said.

Poachers pose a threat to survival of the giant sable

By: ABSALOM SHIGWEDHA

Angola's giant sable antelope

POACHING is threatening Angola’s national symbol, the giant sable antelope, with extinction.

The antelope barely survived three decades of civil war, the head of the Giant Sable Conservation Project based at Cangandala National Park, Pedro Vaz Pinto, said recently.
Vaz Pinto, who last year made a presentation in Windhoek on the rediscovery of the Angolan giant sable, told Reuters this month that poaching since the war has cut the population of giant sables in the park by 50 per cent to one herd of 10 to 15 animals.
And Vaz Pinto fears that this very low number may not sustain even occasional poaching. He said poaching is now the greatest threat to an already dwindling population.
The Giant Sable Conservation Project is based at Cangandala National Park, while some animals were also found in the Luando Nature Reserve.
The project started in 2003 and uses remote cameras triggered by an infrared beam to search for the animals. Vaz Pinto said he has enlisted local shepherds who patrol for poachers and he plans to continue bringing in more manpower and technology to help track and conserve the animals.
He hopes 2009 will be a decisive year in the recovery of this national symbol.
Many people assumed that 27 years of civil war had wiped out the species because there had been no confirmed sighting since 1982.
Locally known as Palanca Negra, Angolans across the country view the antelope as a mystical, almost sacred creature and this helped it to protect it from poachers.
The striking curved horns of the adult male, which can grow up to 165 cm long, appear on the logo of the country’s airline (TAAG) and the national football team.

Thousands of villagers swamp game reserve

Thousands of villagers swamp game reserve - by Chrispin Inambao

9 November 2009

KATIMA MULILO – The Ministry of Environment and Tourism (MET) is brainstorming on how it could contain an influx of between 5 000 to 5 500 people, mostly Hambukushu tribesmen who have swamped the multiple land use areas of the Bwabwata National Park in Caprivi.

Concern about the influx of land-hungry people into pockets of land on the 627 412-hectare park was brought to light last Friday when various Government ministries held a stakeholders’ meeting that looked at Bwabwata and was briefed on the development of the planned Kavango-Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (KAZA).

The trans-frontier conservation area will cover Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe and is likely to be functional next year when five leaders sign the treaty.

Colgar Sikopo, a deputy director in the Directorate of Parks and Wildlife Management, last Friday confirmed the influx of thousands of villagers and livestock.

“It’s not really an influx but these people have been living there in the areas of Omega, Chetto and Bagani,” while at the same time acknowledging there is an urgent need to properly demarcate and rezone the park to restrict the uncontrolled movement of people.

He said the Technical Committee of the Bwabwata National Park is looking at different ways and means in which the communities living in the multiple land use areas could be engaged in the development of certain segments of the park as part of a black economic empowerment initiative of these communities, some of who have been wallowing in poverty.

MET wants the communities in the park to derive benefits through the Kyaramacan Association, that has for been granted a hunting concession that will be extended.

“We are looking at ways on how these communities living in the park could be involved in the development of the park, but most importantly in the benefits-sharing of the park,” said Sikopo.

Environmentalists and other stakeholders were informed there is a frequent mushrooming of new settlements in the Bwabwata and one villager even drove a herd of cattle into a core-conservation area in gross breach of existing conservation laws.

Sikopo said the Ministry of Environment and Tourism and other stakeholders such as the Ministry of Lands and Resettlement and are looking at ways to properly zone the park to curtail and reverse the influx.

“There is an urgent need to properly zone these areas. We are looking at a structured movement of these people into the park of people moving in the park. We are looking at ways to ensure that the park is developed properly. There is need to properly demarcate the multiple land use area,” stated Sikopo whose officials last Friday acknowledged the current influx into the park is one of the challenges facing the park.

He said MET will ensure the influx of both livestock and people would not spill into the core-conservation areas of Mahango, Buffalo and the Kwando core areas.

Sikopo further said the influx has caused an escalation in cases of human/animal conflict.

Last Friday’s stakeholders’ meeting was also informed that MET will need between N$3 million and N$5 million for a landmine clearance operation along the border between this park and Angola that emerged from a brutal conflict several years ago.

In the past many elephants were severely injured and had to be destroyed after stepping on these landmines that will have to be cleared by the explosives unit of the Namibian Police.

The other problems that were identified by participants include whether to rehabilitate an old military ruin found in the park that before independence was regarded as an area of strategic military importance by the South Africans as they battled Plan fighters.

Frequent fire outbreaks that are associated with communal activities were also mentioned as an area of environmental concern among the various participants, while the cut-lines demarcating the border with Angola are overgrown with grass and need de-bushing.

Bwabwata National Park, an area of 627 412 hectares, is zoned into the three conservation areas of Buffalo/Kwando (134 481 hectares), Buffalo Core Area (62 921 hectares) and the Mahango Core Area (24 479).
Bwabwata completely covers the former Caprivi Strip, a straight piece of land between the Kavango and Kwando Rivers.

The Trans-Caprivi Highway dissects Bwabwata in the middle from west to east. Currently environment officials and other stakeholder partners are trying to identify and assess a multitude of opportunities that could be exploited by residents for livelihood and economic development through a participatory park management plan.