The Kruger National Park (KNP) has fired four of its employees for beating to death and slaughtering at least six impala in February, a park spokesperson said on Friday.
”The intense cruelty of the incident horrified us,” KNP executive director Bandile Mkhize said in a statement on Friday.
The men’s dismissal on Thursday followed a three-week internal investigation and disciplinary hearing in Skukuza.
The four — three KNP technical services workers and a general worker at the laundry — deliberately lured the antelope into the laundry yard by leaving the gate open, KNP spokesperson Raymond Travers said.
Once in the yard, which is surrounded by a 3m-high fence, the employees herded the animals into a corner and beat them to death with blunt instruments.
After skinning the animals, the employees smuggled the remains through a hole in the staff hostel fence for storage in their dwellings.
KNP law-enforcement officers caught some of the men responsible on Sunday February 27.
Following the incident, they were suspended and handed to police on various poaching-related charges, including illegal hunting and possession of a wild animal’s carcass.
They appeared before a White River magistrate shortly after the incident and were released on R500 bail each.
They reappeared on May 4 and the case was postponed to June 15.
”The KNP vows to take swift action against anyone caught poaching, whether they are staff members or not,” Mkhize added.
Travers said the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals also intends charging the four under the Animal Cruelty Act. — Sapa