Poachers hold cops hostage
2010-08-09 07:24
Ingrid Oellermann, The Witness
Pietermaritzburg - Police and ER24 paramedics were held hostage by an aggressive 500-strong crowd in the wake of a mass invasion of private land by heavily armed poachers and ensuing gun battles during which police shot and wounded a suspected poacher and killed two hunting dogs on Saturday.
The dogs were allegedly shot after some of the poachers set them on police.
No police officials or paramedics were injured.
The skirmishes took place on a privately owned conservancy near Idube race track at Camperdown.
Provincial police spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Vincent Mndunge said on Sunday the incident seemed to have been based on a “misconception” on the part of the poachers and local community that they had a legitimate right to be both on the land in question and to hunt there.
”They claimed the land was awarded to them through the land claims process,” he said.
'This is ANC land'
Mndunge said this aspect will be further investigated.
Sources told The Witness that on their arrival at the property the poachers - about 65 in all - chased a caretaker away telling him this was “ANC land” and that they were going to hunt there.
Police recovered the carcasses of two Nyala ewes, found to have been killed by hunting dogs, at the scene of the incident.
The suspected poacher was wounded in his shoulder and sustained dog bite injuries to his legs and arms caused by a police dog.
He was reportedly in a stable condition under police guard in a Pietermaritzburg hospital on Sunday and is expected to appear in court once he has sufficiently recovered from his injuries.
He faces charges of illegal hunting of game, attempted murder of members of the SA Police Force as well as public violence.
Hostage drama
The related hostage drama ended without further bloodshed after a tense stand-off lasting “four to five hours” while senior police officials negotiated with the community to allow a contingent of around 30 police, an ambulance and two emergency response vehicles to leave the area.
Only the ambulance transporting the injured suspect to hospital was initially permitted to leave by the crowd.
Hundreds of angry community members supporting the actions of an estimated group of about 65 poachers - armed with handguns, rifles, spears, shields, and hunting dogs - used vehicles to blockade a single-track dirt road leading out of the densely wooded valley where the shooting occurred.
The attitude of the mob which far outnumbered the "hostages" was described as “very threatening”.
Sources told The Witness that the attackers made use of between five and six bakkies and were in cellphone contact with one another as the drama unfolded.
While the negotiations continued the sound of gunfire could still be heard in the valley below.
The first policemen on the scene - two members of the dog unit from Pietermaritzburg - were fortunate to escape with their lives after being surrounded by a group of about 50 to 60 of the armed poachers they were pursuing, and became embroiled in a gunfight.
A police helicopter was deployed to assist them and helped disperse the attackers.
Police reinforcements also arrived and continued the pursuit of the poachers.
Meanwhile, the injured suspect was allegedly placed in a bakkie and transported away from the scene of the shooting by some of his companions.
The Witness was told that ambulances and police reinforcements, already on standby in the area, at that stage received a message - which later turned out to be false - to rush to the Dunbar Spar as a security guard had been wounded in a cash-in-transit robbery there.
An ambulance responding to that false report was flagged down and directed to the place where paramedics were asked to treat the injured suspect.
Police, having established that the robbery report was false, followed the emergency services to the area, where they encountered the enraged community members.