'Crocodile Dundee' is freed

2007-02-21 16:43

Thabisile Khoza

Tonga - Mpumalanga's "Crocodile Dundee" has been freed on a poaching charge.

Poor investigation by the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Agency (MTPA) led a magistrate to find Alex Masinga, 58, and his co-accused, Robert Khoza, 40, not guilty of poaching.

The two men, who live in KaMhlushwa south of Malelane in Mpumalanga, appeared in Tonga magistrate's court on Wednesday.

They were arrested on October 22 last year on charges of killing a crocodile in the Mlumati River and have been kept in custody for the past four months.

Wept at being freed

The magistrate said MTPA officials failed to provide enough evidence to convict the two men.

Masinga had said the crocodile attacked him when he went to drink water from the river. He said he first wrestled with the predator, before shoving his panga down the crocodile's throat.

He said Khoza eventually found him and helped him drag the crocodile out the water.

He and Khoza wept on Wednesday when they learnt they could go home.

"I told them a long time ago that I didn't do anything wrong," said Masinga afterwards.

"I killed the crocodile because I was protecting myself. The crocodile wanted to kill me and when I fought back police arrested me for nothing.

"Today I'm going home to start a new life with my family and forget my stay in jail."

Masinga enjoyed a brief period of hero worship in his community before he was arrested.

Wildlife authorities smelled a rat, however, after failing to find the panga or any of the injuries Masinga claimed to have inflicted on the reptile.

37 eggs in pregnant croc

Instead, a fishing net was found entangled around the crocodile's head.

Police dockets tabled in court say that the crocodile, which is a protected animal, was pregnant when it was killed. Wildlife experts retrieved 37 eggs from it during the post-mortem.

The docket claims that the fishing net and various other evidence indicates that Khoza and Masinga were deliberately hunting crocodiles, but it wasn't enough to convince the magistrate.

- African Eye