A member of a leopard smuggling ring exposed by the Mail & Guardian has been given a stiff sentence by a Northern Cape magistrate for illegal trafficking in wildlife.
Willie du Plessis, a farmer based near Kakamas, was caught in a sting operation coordinated by conservation officials and police. He tried to sell the operatives a young female leopard he had trapped for R30 000 without a permit.
Du Plessis was fined R75 000 in the Upington regional magistrate’s court last week for possessing and dealing in endangered wildlife without a permit. The bakkie he was using at the time of the bust, worth about R150 000, was forfeited to the state.
A police officer involved in the sting, who asked to remain anonymous, said the sentence sets a welcome precedent for wildlife smugglers. ”It shows them that selling leopards is not worth the fine,” he said.
However, the kingpins in the smuggling network, who act as brokers between farmers and hunting outfits who buy the cats, remain untouchable because Du Plessis was not prepared to testify against them. The brokers, based in North West, are known to be operating the scam across at least four provinces.
Though leopards are classified as endangered, it is difficult to know exactly how many are left in Southern Africa because they are solitary, stealthy cats. The youngsters in particular are easy to catch in a snare or trap by using bait.
The brokers in the smuggling network offer to take ”problem” animals off farmers’ hands, in exchange for a share of the profits. In Du Plessis’s case, the brokers would have taken R20 000 of the R30 000 price tag and the farmer would have
got R10 000.
The sting was set up after the brokers advertised the young leopard — a female aged about 12 months — on the Internet. Du Plessis, a wine and sheep farmer, told the police the leopard was after his livestock, but experts say she was too young to do any real damage to livestock.
The police confiscated the leopard after arresting Du Plessis last September and sent her for release in a safe area. Animal welfare organisations paid for her to have root canal treatment before she was released, because she had severely damaged her teeth while trying to escape from her cage.
Hunting outfits are the smuggling ring’s biggest clients and because the animals are due for the gun it is a cruel trade. The police have confiscated leopards wounded by gin traps or snares and held in tiny cages, often without food or water. They are wild animals, driven to dementia in confinement with people constantly gawking at them.
Another alleged member of the ring is due to be charged in a Limpopo court on April 6. A well-known member of the hunting fraternity, he was allegedly trying to sell a five-year-old female who had ripped her paws and broken her upper canines trying to get out of a mesh cage.
After treatment, the leopard was released at SanWild wildlife sanctuary. She was lactating when police confiscated her but they did not manage to track down her cubs, which probably starved to death.
Last August another smuggler, Harno van Rensburg from Tolwe in Limpopo, was convicted of illegally capturing three young leopards. He was keeping them in a dilapidated old house and looking for a buyer when police confiscated the cats.
The police officer this week compared the sentences handed down to Van Rensburg and Du Plessis.
Van Rensburg was sentenced to an effective R5 000 fine for his offence. He was fined R15 000 and R10 000 was suspended for five years. Considering he had sold two mature leopards to an outfit in the Free State for R60 000 shortly before the court case, he would have had little problem paying the fine.
”In Du Plessis’s case, the maximum amount they would have got if they had sold the leopard would have been R30 000. The punishment ended up being more than R220 000. This is the best sentence I know of in this kind of case and should serve as a warning,” the officer said.