Question NW940 to the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans
20 April 2018 - NW940
Hadebe, Mr TZ to ask the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans
(1)What number of (a) poachers and (b) illegal immigrants were arrested by the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) members deployed in the Kruger National Park in each year since 1 January 2010; (2) what number of cases regarding (a) poachers and (b) illegal immigrants were referred to the SANDF by the (i) SA Police Service (SAPS) members deployed in the Kruger National Park and (ii) SA National Parks rangers at the Kruger National Park annually since 1 January 2010; (3) what number of successful prosecutions resulted from the above-mentioned arrests?
Reply:
S/No Suspects/Year Apprehended Wounded Killed Arrested Total per year
1 2010 0 0 0 0 0
2 2011 4 2 9 16 31
3 2012 8 3 7 33 51
4 2013 5 1 1 6 13
5 2014 14 4 2 19 39
6 2015 0 3 3 9 15
7 2016 0 5 2 22 29
8 2017 0 2 2 3 7
9 2018 0 0 1 2 3
TOTAL 31 20 27 110 188
(a) The above figures are concerned with only poaching suspects, (Op RHINO/Op HORIZON).
(b) Illegal immigrants apprehended are handed over to the SAPS immediately; therefore the statistics thereof are not in the SANDF domain.
Question 2: What number of cases regarding (a) poachers and illegal immigrants were referred to the SANDF by the (i) SA Police Service (SAPS) members deployed in the Kruger National Park and (ii) SA National Parks rangers at the Kruger National Park annually since 1 January 2010?
REPLY: None.
Question 3: What number of successful prosecutions resulted from the abovementioned arrests?
REPLY:
The South African Defence Force (SANDF) is deployed on the National Borders as one of the Government Departments charged with the responsibility to ensure border safeguarding and is therefore required to work in accord with the SAPS. Therefore the SANDF is obliged when poachers and/or illegal immigrants are arrested, to hand the alleged perpetrators over the SAPS immediately, as such the SANDF would not have a mandate to conduct any criminal investigation and therefore no statistical data is available within its domain.
All criminal investigations are investigated by the SAPS, whom after completion submit it to the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) for further processing.