South Africa sends in the army to stop rhino poaching
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The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) had been asked by South African National Parks (SANParks) to play a strategic role in the protection of South African National Parks, especially the Kruger National Park.
The SANDF deployed to the Kruger where the park borders with Mozambique and Zimbabwe at the beginning of April 2011.
The South African Minister of Defence, Ms Lindiwe Sisulu, has congratulated SANDF for arresting four alleged poachers in the Kruger National Park. The Mozambican nationals were found in possession of hunting rifle, binoculars, axe and cell phones. They will appear at Skukuza Magistrate Court.
"We congratulate the SANDF members for arresting poachers. It has been 15 days since they deployed into the Park and we can see the results already. We will continue to work with the law enforcement agencies to secure our borders and to deal with rhino poaching", said Minister Sisulu.
"Our national parks are major assets, and we will protect them for the future and those who pose any threats to our animals will meet the full might of the law. We have declared war with poachers in all our parks," added Minister Sisulu.
The SANDF is currently deployed along the Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Lesotho borders. At the end of the financial year 2012/13 the SANDF will cover the entire over 4471 kilometres of land between South Africa and Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Namibia, and Lesotho.
