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Issue 36 | January 2023

Landscape of fear
Crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger
Julian Rademeyer

Summary
For more than a decade, Kruger National Park has faced a relentless onslaught of rhino
Research Paper

poaching. But today its greatest threat is internal corruption, itself a symptom of a breakdown
in trust, staff cohesion and professionalism within the park. Recent staff arrests following
lengthy financial investigations and a renewed commitment to combat corruption are
bearing fruit but will require political support, clear law enforcement strategies to address
organized crime around the park and a long-term investment. The park is severely affected
by corrosive corruption and violent organised crime, particularly in Mpumalanga, where staff
living in surrounding communities are vulnerable to deeply entrenched criminal syndicates.

Key points
• Between 2011 and 2020, Kruger’s white rhino population fell 75%, from approximately
10 621 animals to 2 607.
• Internal corruption is the greatest threat facing the park, itself a symptom of a breakdown
in trust, staff cohesion and professionalism within the park.
• Toxic politics, deep-seated inequality, corruption and embedded organised criminality have
profoundly affected the park and surrounding communities.
• Crime and corruption in the Kruger National Park should not be viewed in isolation
without taking the impact of organized crime in Mpumalanga, including kidnappings,
cash-in-transit heists, ATM bombings, illegal mining, extortion and corruption, into account.
• Renewed efforts to combat corruption in the park, coupled with a refreshing openness
about the extent of the problem and a desire to address it, require holistic efforts.
Methodology
This report is based on fieldwork conducted in Mpumalanga and Kruger National Park between October
2022 and January 2023, with additional interviews in Johannesburg and Pretoria. Qualitative interviews
were conducted with 15 subjects from a cross-sector of the wildlife, enforcement and security sectors. These
included senior law enforcement officials, security consultants, SANParks officials, conservation managers and
others with experience working in the province and on organised crime and corruption.

Most interviews were conducted on condition of anonymity, with some interviewees expressing fears of
reprisals. All interviews were conducted face-to-face and interviews lasted an hour on average. Snowball
sampling or chain referral was used in some cases to identify additional interview subjects. The research also
entailed a comprehensive literature review of academic research on organised crime, corruption and green
violence; civil society and media reports, court documents, company and deed records, and video footage.

A landscape of fear
The Kruger National Park is arguably one of South Africa’s most iconic symbols and one of the world’s
greatest wildlife conservation areas. The size of Wales or Israel, it covers 19 200km² of woodland, mopane
forest, savannah, granite hills, grassland plains and mountains, stitched together by the Sabie, Olifants, Letaba,
Shingwedzi and Luvuvhu rivers. It is home to more than 500 bird, 145 mammal and 336 tree species.1, 2

Chart 1: Population trends of white and black rhinos in Kruger since the first introduction of
white rhino in 1961 and black rhino in1971. The broken lines reflect 95% confidence
intervals of estimates

White rhino
14 000

12 000
Number of rhinos

10 000

8 000

6 000

4 000

2 000

0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Black rhino
700

600
Number of rhinos

500

400

300

200

100

0
1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Source: Ferreira et al, 2021, African Journal of Wildlife Research 51 (1) https://doi.org/10.3957/056.051.0100.

2 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

For more than a decade, Kruger and those who work there have faced an almost unrelenting onslaught of
rhino poaching. This was broken only by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw a 79.4% reduction in rhino
poaching in the park in 2020).3, 4

Between 2011 and 2020, the park’s white rhino population fell 75%, from approximately 10 621 animals to
just 2 607. Kruger’s small but vitally important population of critically endangered black rhinos dropped by
more than half, from around 415 animals in 2013 to about 202 in 2020.5, 6, 7

Facilitated by transnational criminal networks, the global illegal

trade in African rhino horn is driven by consumer demand
in Asia, primarily in China and Vietnam. Ancient beliefs and
modern urban myths have fused to fuel the use of rhino horn
for its perceived benefits as a fever-reducer, cancer treatment, Today, the Kruger’s
health tonic, even a hangover cure. gravest threat is not
Disposable income in countries such as Vietnam and China poaching but
has risen rapidly. Rhino horn has ‘become a luxury item and
an investment for the rich, coveted for its rarity, held up as an
internal corruption
embodiment of status and a means of buying favour’.8, 9, 10, 11
Consumers there are prepared to pay between US$17 545/kg to US$20 881/kg according to recent data
from the Wildlife Justice Commission.12

The poachers who supply this market often do not conform to the stereotype of greedy criminals who care
little for the animals they kill, argues Professor Rosaleen Duffy in a new book on security and conservation.
Rather, she writes, the drivers of poaching are multilayered and complex, relating to a lack of opportunity,
money, status and wealth, as well as conspicuous consumption and a desire to gain respect.13

From 2018 to 2021, 2 707 rhino poaching incidents were recorded in Africa: 90% in South Africa, with the
Kruger and, more recently, KwaZulu-Natal’s Hluhluwe-iMfolozi National Park, bearing the brunt.14 Between
January and June 2022, Kruger lost 82 animals. KwaZulu-Natal was hardest hit with 133 losses, more than
triple the 33 rhinos killed in the first six months of 2021 when COVID restrictions were eased.15

Today, however, Kruger’s gravest threat is not poaching but the internal corruption that has metastasised
as poaching syndicates have entrenched themselves around the park and organised crime has spread. As
many as 40% of the park’s law enforcement staff – some South African National Parks (SANParks) officials
speculate it may even be as high as 70% in some areas – are believed to be aiding poaching networks or
involved in corrupt or criminal activities in some way including high levels of fuel theft.

Relations between staff and management have become strained and increasingly toxic, poisoned by mutual
mistrust and suspicion. Morale is low. Accusations of racism and unfair treatment – some real and some in a
cynical effort to stymie disciplinary proceedings and investigations – have fuelled tensions.16, 17

This has been aggravated by a ‘war on poaching’, which, as with the ‘war on drugs’ or any other equally
nebulous ‘war’, has no clear end in sight. The militarised response to poaching has already reaped a terrible
human cost in the lives of rangers, police, soldiers and poachers. Kruger’s field rangers, particularly the first
responders dropped by helicopter into armed ‘contacts’ with poaching gangs, face enormous psychological
and physical pressures that inevitably sap morale. This has led many of them to question the militarised
tactics being used and whether they are fair or moral. The enormous costs of the militarised response – in
flying hours, technology, manpower and weapons are also questioned, when many field rangers live in
substandard housing.18, 19, 20

Most of Kruger’s staff live in villages and towns around the park. They are particularly vulnerable to the
poaching syndicates and criminal gangs that live alongside them. There are no safe spaces.21 Police
criminality and a lack of skills and resources, particularly at local stations, have created a law enforcement
and governance void that has helped criminal networks thrive. Pervasive poverty, deep-seated inequality,
political instability, violent community protests as a result of inadequate services, state inertia and
widespread corruption exacerbate this vacuum.22

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 3

Mpumalanga surrounds the southern half of the park, where the last rhinos are clustered in the so-called
intensive protection zone (IPZ). The western boundary from Hoedspruit to Acornhoek, Bushbuckridge,
Hazyview, White River and Mbombela, heading 100km east past Barberton, through Kanyamazane and
Matsulu to Komatipoort is a landscape of fear. Illicit markets abound and violence and murder are all-too
common. Violent organised crime came to a head with the assassinations of Directorate for Priority Crime
Investigation (better known as the Hawks) investigator Lieutenant-Colonel Leroy Bruwer in 202023 and
Timbavati head ranger Anton Mzimba in 2022.24, 25

While some insiders wryly refer to it as the ‘Republic of Kruger’, the park does not exist in isolation. Around
it are communities struggling to survive, marginalised by political processes and often left unprotected by
the state. Organised crime groups involved in criminal activities such as poaching, stock theft, cash-in-transit

Chart 2: Focus area

Acornhoek
Hluvukani Manyeleti
Game Reserve SOUTH
AFRICA
Thulamahashe

Mala Mala
Game Reserve
Bushbuckridge

Sabie
Park

MOZAMBIQUE
Mkhuhlu Skukuza

Hazyview

Mahushu Kruger National Park

SOUTH AFRICA

White River
Marloth Park

4
Kanyamazane Komatipoort
Mbombela Malelane
4 Matsulu

Kamhlushwa
Buffelspruit
Tonga
Schoemansdal

ESWATINI
Barberton

Kruger National Park International border Road

4 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

heists, hijackings, armed robberies, ATM bombings, kidnapping, extortion and illegal gold mining have all
taken root. And corruption is ubiquitous.

Far from being an insulated wildlife idyll, Kruger and its future are inextricably bound to the future of the
communities that surround it and the peril that those communities face daily from violent organised crime,
political inertia and absent law enforcement.

Today there appears to be renewed will among park management to confront corruption, coupled with a
refreshing openness about the enormity of the problem. Still, it will be a long, gruelling task, one that will
require significant resources, determination, a long-term commitment and transparent political support.
Early successes, including the arrest of two rangers and 11 alleged accomplices implicated in poaching
networks, corruption and money laundering, bode well. Long-running financial investigations have identified
payments to dozens of Kruger staff and helped pinpoint key actors, giving further cause for hope.26

This report examines Kruger, its surrounding communities and Mpumalanga on the south-western boundary
in the context of its complex criminal ecosystems and the politics and corruption that has shaped the
province post-democracy. It includes case studies of key criminal actors that demonstrate the pivotal role of
corruption, the adaptability of rhino-poaching networks and their links to other forms of organised crime.

The ‘Republic of Kruger’

For years, the prevailing mantra at SANParks was that to stop poaching, it was necessary to ‘clear the park
from the outside’; a glib phrase describing a strategy that was ultimately unsuccessful.27

More than 2.9-million people live within 50km of Kruger’s western boundary fence. According to an
expanded definition of unemployment,28 which includes discouraged job seekers, and is a far more accurate
reflection of the country’s economic state, average unemployment in the area was 46.5% at the end of
2022’s third quarter (nationally, the figure was 43.1%). Amid rising discontent over poverty and inequality,
Kruger’s significance as a tourist destination has made it a strategic pawn in protests against poor service
delivery and inadequate housing, electricity, water and roads. Some of this is fuelled by internecine feuds
between rival African National Congress (ANC) factions.29, 30

In recent years, for example, residents of Shabalala near Hazyview

have regularly blocked roads around Kruger with rocks, tree
stumps and soil mounds. This is to protest the absence of running
water, electricity and tarred roads not addressed since 1994.31 For many living in
Most recently, in September and October 2022, protestors
barricaded roads leading to Kruger Gate, the main entrance to
poverty in the area,
the south of the park, for a week and prevented guests from the Kruger’s beauty
leaving.32 ‘The communities know they will be heard locally
and internationally if they block access to Kruger,’ a local resident
has ‘little relevance’
explains. ‘It is the only way they can draw attention to grievances.’33

The dire economy and lack of employment were recurring themes in interviews for a 2021 study of the
perspectives and perceptions of protected areas, conservation and safety in Mpumalanga communities
along Kruger’s western boundary. Participants said they saw no benefits in conservation and viewed
poverty, inequality and unemployment as drivers of crime. Aggravating tensions between communities and
protected areas were heavy-handed police and anti-poaching operations ‘levelled not only at rhino-poaching
suspects but at random community members’.34

Nearly 30 years after the first post-apartheid election, Kruger and SANParks continue to grapple with
an uncomfortable historic legacy moulded by Afrikaner nationalism, apartheid and exploitation and
forced removals of black Africans from protected areas. As Professor Jane Carruthers wrote in her seminal
examination of Kruger’s social and political history, for many black South Africans living in extreme poverty
in areas adjoining the park, Kruger’s aesthetic beauty has ‘little relevance’. ‘For them, the park’s name
and ethos have come to symbolise strands in the web of racial discrimination and white political and
economic domination.’35

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 5

 In 2021/22, more than 500 000 black South Africans visited national parks overseen by SANParks, making
up 28.1% of all its South African guests. But black South Africans accounted for just 12.7% of South African
overnight guests. The others were all day visitors.36

Kruger employs around 2 500 staff and supports an additional 4 500 jobs mostly in surrounding
communities with concessionaires and through infrastructure and extended public works programmes.
About 400 staff are field rangers. Most of the park’s rangers (96.9%) are from Mpumalanga and Limpopo,
with 86.8% and their families living in villages and small towns surrounding the park. The number of rangers
from each area ranges from one to 47.37

A decade of ongoing conflict has taken a toll, not only on the lives of rangers, police, soldiers and poachers
killed and wounded in ‘contacts’ and ‘friendly fire’ but on physical and mental health. ‘The pressure is
relentless, there is no respite,’ says Elise Serfontein, founding director of Stop Rhino Poaching. ‘The physical
and mental fatigue is taking its toll.’38 The risks extend beyond firefights in the bush. In May 2022, for
example, a Kruger field ranger and dog handler, Shando Mathebula, was killed by a buffalo while on patrol
in the Shangoni ranger section.39

Chart 3: Rhino poaching in South Africa (2006 – 2021)

1 300
1 215
1 200 1 175
1 100 1 054 1 028
1 004
1 000
900
Rhino poached

800 769
700 668
600 594
500 448 451
394
400 333
300
200 122
100 36 83
13
0
2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Source: Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment

During the worst years of the poaching crisis from 2014 to 2017, there were thousands of incursions by
poachers every year. A dozen poaching gangs could operate in the park on any day. In 2015, for example,
SANParks officials recorded a 43% increase in poacher activity compared to the previous year. That year,
there were about 2 500 incursions and 137 armed ‘contacts’ with poaching gangs.

Between 150 and 200 suspected poachers were shot and killed in Kruger between 2010 and 2015. Seven
South African National Defence Force soldiers have lost their lives, five in a helicopter crash and two in
accidental shootings. At least two field rangers and a policeman have been killed. Others have been
grievously wounded.40

Today, the greatest threat facing Kruger National Park and its staff, however, is not poaching. It is internal
corruption, coupled with worsening organised crime in Mpumalanga. Over the past decade, corruption
has become endemic. There are well-founded fears that as many as 40% of the park’s law enforcement
staff could be aiding poaching gangs or be involved in corruption in some way. Some put the figure of staff
involvement ‘conservatively at 70%’, including staff who may not be involved directly in poaching but help
facilitate it by providing information or concealing weapons.

6 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

Prole – h
T e case of Clyde Mnisi

In late-October 2022, Clyde Mnisi was inaugurated Alleged poaching ‘kingpin’ Clyde Mnisi (right) with
hosi or traditional leader of the Mnisi clan. He controversial Mpumalanga MEC Mandla Msib
wore a leopard-skin robe and took his place on
a wrought-iron throne painted gold as a crowd
cheered. Controversial Mpumalanga Department of
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC
Mandla Msibi, who had recently been reinstated
to the provincial Cabinet after prosecutors
provisionally withdrew a double-murder charge
against him, presented Mnisi with a gilt-framed
certificate recognising him as a senior traditional
leader and the ‘rightful heir to the throne’.42, 43

But police and prosecutors allege that Mnisi is one

of the ‘kingpins’ in a ‘massive trafficking network
of poached rhino horn’. Together with six other Photo: COGTA Mpumalanga handout
suspects, including now-deceased Hazyview crime
boss Petros Sydney Mabuza, commonly referred
house duo Black Motion, Master KG and amapiano
to by his clan name, Mshengu, and notorious
dancer and musician Kamo Mphela.50
ex-cop ‘Big Joe’ Nyalunga, Mnisi was arrested in
September 2018.44 At the time of the arrests, a police spokesman
said the syndicate’s criminal operations, aided
The police operation, codenamed Project Broadbill,
by corrupt police and staff in state and private
involved members of the Hawks, the police special
reserves, were ‘executed with paramilitary discipline
task forces, SANParks, the NPA, SARS and the
and included counter-intelligence operations to
Department of Environmental Affairs. It seized
prevent detection’.51 Its reach extended from Kruger
assets worth millions, including properties, cars,
to Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. Many poaching
trucks, stolen trailers, generators and electronic
incidents allegedly linked to it took place between
equipment, and animal skins.45
January and May 2017 in the Stolsnek section of
Five of the suspects were serving or ex-police. Kruger. ‘These are the guys who organised the
They included Phineas Lubisi (40), a police captain snipers (sic).’ claimed Hawks spokesman Brigadier
at Calcutta police station and formerly station Hangwani Mulaudzi. ‘These are the guys who were
commander of Skukuza police station in Kruger making millions.’52
National Park, and Aretha Mhlanga, a constable
During the subsequent bail hearing, the courtroom
at Skukuza. Others were Claude Lubisi (33), a
was packed with supporters of the accused. Some
former Calcutta constable, Rachel Qwebana (33), a
demonstrated outside the building wearing white
constable with the Acornhoek stock theft unit, and
t-shirts proclaiming ‘No food at home without Baas
Nyalunga, a former police warrant officer based at
Joe, Baas Mshengu, Baas Clyde’. Placards accused
White River police station.46, 47, 48
a SANParks ranger and ‘his friends’ of bringing
The syndicate is alleged to have exerted influence ‘prisoners to poison Big Joe, Mr Big (Mabuza)
over a swathe of territory along the Kruger western and Clyde Mnisi and those prisoners refused’.53, 54
boundary. It stretched from Belfast and Cork to the Nyalunga was granted bail of R120 000, Mabuza
east of Sabi Sands Game Reserve, down to Calcutta, R90 000 and Mnisi R50 000, with the remaining
Mkhuhlu, the Shabalala tribal trust area and accused released on bail of R10 000 each.55
Hazyview, where Nyalunga and Mabuza had homes
In July 2020, Nyalunga was arrested for the 2010
a few kilometres apart.
murder of his neighbour (see separate profile).56
Company records indicate a close affiliation In June 2021, Mabuza died in a hail of bullets at
between the Mnisi and Nyalunga families, with Lowveld Mall in Hazyview. CCTV footage caught the
shared directorships in several shelf companies three killers fleeing the scene. No suspects have
dating as far back as 2004.49 Mnisi is also the owner been arrested (see separate profile).57, 58 Charges
of Phendhulani Lodge in Mkhuhlu, which opened against Mabuza were formally withdrawn in
in April 2019, regularly hosting DJs and pool parties, November 2021 after the case was transferred to
and attracting some of South Africa’s top talent. Mpumalanga High Court. The prosecution of the
Artists have included Afropop stars Blaq Diamond, remaining accused continues.59

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 7

In just one section in the south of the park, 14 of its 20 rangers have been linked to poaching networks.
Investigations by private auditing firm KPMG and the Hawks focusing on the IPZ, home to most of Kruger’s
rhinos, have uncovered evidence of payments from syndicates to at least 50 staff ‘from all walks of life’. And
these numbers are likely to increase.41

A report tabled at the recent Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference
of Parties in Panama warned of ‘targeted efforts by organised syndicates to infiltrate Kruger National
Park employees to solicit information that assists them in poaching, such as rhino locations and ranger
deployments’.60

That targeting has increased as anti-poaching efforts and a programme to dehorn most of the park’s rhinos
have taken effect, coupled with the decline in rhino numbers, which makes them harder to find. ‘It is
impossible for someone to come into Kruger now without some sort of inside link or inside information,’ says
head ranger Cathy Dreyer.61

At the end of each 26-day rotation, when the rangers head home to their families, they face new risks. Many
live in the same communities as the poaching gangs they are meant to stop.62 They walk the same streets as
corrupt colleagues.

The aftermath of a cash-in-transit heist on 2 September 2022 in which 10 armed suspects

attacked a cash van on the R40 near Bushbuckridge

Photo: SAPS

Local police stations are riddled with corruption. They are deeply in the pockets of organised-crime groups
involved in poaching, cash-in-transit heists, car and truck hijackings, armed robberies, ATM bombings and
illegal gold mining. Thus, they offer little meaningful protection. Sometimes they even serve as escorts for
contraband. The more honest police and those who feel a sense of dedication to their communities have
little option but to turn a blind eye to the activities of their colleagues for fear of being killed.

The overtures can, at first, be subtle. ‘A ranger goes to a shebeen and is overheard saying he needs new tyres
for his vehicle but can’t afford to buy them,’ an investigator explains. ‘A few drinks later, someone comes over
and says, “Look, I can help you out. No problem, here are four new tyres”. A few months later, the guy says,
“I’ve got four shiny new mags to go with the tyres. They’ll look great on your GTI”. And then, the day comes
when he explains who he is and what he wants the ranger to do.’

But often, the syndicates forgo any pretence of subtlety. ‘You work in the park, your wife is alone at home
with the kids and this is where the kids go to school. You make the choice,’ they say. The ranger begins to
provide information to the syndicate. He receives his first payment of R25 000 in cash or into a bank. Nothing
happens to him. And then he helps, again and again, pocketing the money and protecting his family.63

8 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

The July 2022 murder of Anton Mzimba, head ranger at Murdered Timbavati head ranger
Timbavati Private Nature Reserve, which forms part of the Anton Mzimba
greater Kruger National Park, brought into sharp relief the
pressure rangers face. Mzimba, who had a reputation for
resolute incorruptibility, was shot dead outside his home
in Edinburgh Trust near Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga after
receiving several death threats.64, 65, 66 His wife was severely
wounded in the attack but survived. Despite clear leads on
suspects, an international outcry and calls from the Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge for his killers to be brought to book,
police appear to have made little, if any, progress.67

‘Anton was such an incredible presence, such a strong person,’

says a conservation manager who knew him. ‘His murder was
a huge blow and demoralised rangers. He gets murdered and
nobody cares. A German tourist is murdered and police pull
out all the stops. And the rangers ask, “Why is a tourist more
important than our own people?”’68

Dreyer sees the impact on an already demotivated ranger corps.

‘What do you do when you live in communities where the Photo: Timbavati Game Reserve
syndicates are so entrenched? You’re on your own. And then
rangers ask us what SANParks is doing (to protect them).
There is only so much we can do. We can’t give every person who works for us and his or her family
accommodation in the park. More broadly, something has to be done about the crime in the areas around
the park. We need communities that are safe places for people to live in again. Because there aren’t safe
places for rangers to go in their off-time.

‘I’m not making excuses for them, but many of the rangers who get involved in poaching or corruption have
had their families threatened, their livelihoods threatened. And they have nowhere to turn. There is crime all
around them.’69

Some protected areas staff say that even if they are not involved, they feel stigmatised as poachers. ‘We live
in shame,’ one was quoted saying in a 2021 survey. ‘Even for us, we are working in these reserves. When we
are outside, we are enemies. They look at you and they say this man is taking news in, news out. These are
people who are really trying to protect these animals.’70

Financial difficulties, particularly among staff supporting large extended families in often-marginalised
communities where few have steady work, make staff especially vulnerable to recruitment by crime
networks. SANParks is currently implementing a benchmarking programme to determine how salaries can
be improved. ‘We are trying to benchmark what, for example, a sergeant, a corporal, a lance corporal and so
on should be paid, to develop an incentive and a reward model,’ says Dreyer.

In a society that prizes visible displays of wealth, other park staff, particularly younger ones, ‘see how
successful the gang bosses are, the cars they drive, the lifestyles, the conspicuous excess, and they want it,’
a law enforcement officer says. ‘Often, they are not people who have worked in Kruger long enough to have
developed a passion for what they do, as have some older rangers.’71

There is also little consensus among Kruger staff as to what exactly constitutes ‘poaching’. ‘To many staff, it
is actually pulling the trigger, killing the rhino and cutting off the horn,’ Dreyer says. ‘But giving information
about ranger deployments and rhino localities, taking horns out of the park, and bringing in and harbouring
poachers, are not seen by many as actively poaching.’ One case involved the ‘laundry lady’ who received
thousands of rand to bring a rifle into the park and conceal it in linen. To her, that wasn’t poaching. She did
not kill a rhino, therefore she wasn’t poaching.’72

On 23 April 2022, in a potentially groundbreaking investigation, the Mpumalanga Hawks’ serious corruption
investigation team arrested two veteran Kruger field rangers. based in the park’s Stolsnek ranger section.

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 9

 Prole – ‘Mr Big’

Petros Sydney Mabuza (57), a notorious cash- Notorious cash-in-transit heist- and rhino-
in-transit heist- and rhino-poaching syndicate poaching syndicate ringleader Petros Sydney
ringleader, was killed in June 2021 when three men Mabuza was killed in a hit in June 2021
opened fire on him as he sat in his orange double-
cab bakkie (pick-up) in the parking lot of Lowveld
Mall in Hazyview, Mpumalanga.73, 74

Security camera footage shared on social media

showed a vehicle pull up parallel to his and people
scattering as shots rang out. Two of the killers exited
the getaway vehicle, fired more shots at close range
and then searched Mabuza’s pick-up. No suspects
have been arrested.

Mabuza, dubbed ‘Mr Big’ by the press and known

more respectfully by his clan name, Mshengu, was
said to be involved in a range of criminal activities,
including cash-in-transit heists, loansharking and
extortion. He owned several properties and was
heavily involved in the taxi industry.75

His funeral was a lavish affair with a sound stage,

a grand marquee, a cavalcade of cars and a string
of mourners singing his praises and condemning
those who said he was a criminal. His casket
arrived by helicopter and was buried draped in
Photos: YouTube and SAPS
leopard skin.76, 77, 78

Mabuza’s alleged involvement in rhino poaching

dates to the early-2000s, but it was only in the lead investigator in the case, Lieutenant-Colonel
2018 that he was arrested and charged. Legal Leroy Bruwer, was ambushed and killed by hitmen.
proceedings continue against Mabuza’s co-accused, Some of Bruwer’s colleagues believe Mabuza was
former police officer ‘Big Joe’ Nyalunga.79 In 2020, behind the murder.80, 81

Mabuza was buried draped in leopard skin at a lavish funeral

Photos: YouTube

10 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

The men, Daniel Chikwa Maluleke (60) and Solly Ubisi (56), had spent most of their working lives in Kruger.
They were charged with corruption, money laundering and fraud linked to poaching and wildlife trafficking,
the first case of its kind in the park. A Hawks spokesman said they allegedly ‘provided tactical information to
rhino-poaching syndicates in exchange for large sums of money’.82

An investigation by auditing firm KPMG and the Hawks has uncovered dozens of transactions over five years
amounting to hundreds of thousands of rand, possibly millions. The money had allegedly flowed into bank
accounts linked to relatives, wives and children of the accused. Outgoing payments to other rangers and
staff in Kruger were also detected. Sometimes, bank accounts were opened in the names of two-month-
old toddlers.83

The impact of the arrests was felt almost immediately. Poacher activity, particularly around Stolsnek, fell
sharply. For 65 days, not a single poaching attempt nor incident was recorded there.84 The evidence against
the pair was compelling enough for internal disciplinary proceedings brought by SANParks against Maluleke
and Ubisi to be concluded within months of their arrest. Both were unceremoniously sacked and now face a
criminal trial.

In early-December 2022, nine of their relatives were arrested on charges of money laundering.85, 86 Weeks
later, two more suspects who had been on the run since the arrests, Martin Prince Lekhuleni (37) and his
sister Eunice Lekhuleni (24) were apprehended by the Hawks. Police said Martin Lekhuleni allegedly ‘paid
money into the accounts of the field rangers and their families as gratification for tactical information in
Kruger to assist poaching syndicates’.87, 88

In recent years, internal corruption has also seen a sharp increase in so-called ‘drop-off’ poaching incidents.
The IUCN/TRAFFIC report to CITES describes it as a ‘major problem’. Poachers posing as tourists drive into
the park, collect a rifle that has been hidden for them, kill a rhino and remove the horns. After leaving the
horns in the care of a Kruger staff member in the syndicate’s pay, they leave the park. The horns are later
delivered to them.

In some instances ‘rangers located carcasses 200m to 700m from tourist roads indicating that … poachers
knew the rhino’s location’. Rangers also report hearing shots ‘without an associated detected incursion’
across the park’s fence line, suggesting the shooter had driven in or been driven in.89

In the past, poachers moving through the park would conceal

weapons for future use or use corrupt staff to hide them. ‘We
pulled so many weapons out that had been hidden in the park,’
a SANParks official says. ‘Sometimes a hyena or elephant would ‘The easiest way for
discover the rifle and play with it, and then it ended up on the
syndicates to poach
road. The poachers learnt their lesson.’90
is to ensure they have
Instead of trying to hide weapons in the bush, they would be
carried over the Kruger boundary fence, picked up inside the done their homework’
park by staff and moved to where they could be stored securely.
‘The easiest way for syndicates to poach is to ensure they have done their homework internally,’ the official
continues. ‘They don’t usually drive into the park with a concealed rifle. They need people to help.

‘They have to recruit someone at the gate – a corrupt security guy – then a field ranger who knows where
anti-poaching deployments are, where the rhinos are. Then they need people who can drive around the
park and secure a weapon for them.’91 The arrests of Maluleke, Ubisi and their alleged cohorts, couple with
mounting pressure on ‘internal suspects’ who are aware they are being watched, reduced sharply the
number of drop-off poaching incidents in the latter half of 2022.92

In December 2022, two former Kruger rangers, Hendrick Experience Silinda (31) and Musa Mlambo (38),
were each sentenced to seven years in prison by the Skukuza Regional Court. They were arrested in February
2019 while on duty. Regional rangers received a tip-off that poachers were going to enter the park and that
they had insider help. Silinda and Mlambo were apprehended with a hunting rifle, seven rounds, a sound
suppressor and three hunting knives.93

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 11

Corruption, mistrust and suspicion have poisoned relations in the park. Discipline has crumbled and staff
are demoralised, disaffected and feel unappreciated. A recent survey of Kruger staff and management
conducted by the WWF/USAID Khetha programme was ‘depressing and eye-opening’, says Dreyer. The
internal study, which examined the drivers and impact of corruption and solutions to mitigate it, interviewed
more than 30 rangers and about 30 people in management in greater Kruger.

‘It is certainly not a healthy work environment,’ a SANParks official explained. ‘It is toxic. Imagine what it
does to relations being in a position where 40% or more of your workforce is working against you. Game
guards, rangers, trail guides, protection services and housekeeping staff have been arrested. Section rangers
are forced to plan deployments on whom they can trust and can’t.94

‘For example, there are 52 vacancies in ranger services alone and no money to fill them. But even if we had
the money tomorrow, we are certainly not going to recruit 52 people and put them into what is not a nice
work environment at the moment. It’s not right for them and it is not right for us. If you bring anyone in now,
you’re just going to break him or her.’95

The focus now, Dreyer says, must be to improve work conditions and relationships, and reinstate training
programmes put on hold for the past six years due to the focus on anti-poaching efforts. Crucial is
fair, objective implementation of a new integrity management policy. This would help build resilience,
strengthen leadership, ensure accountability and combat a sense of impunity around corruption that has
taken root in the park.96

Previous efforts to implement ‘integrity testing’ and polygraphing were met with stiff resistance from unions
and ultimately abandoned.97 The technology used at the time, layered voice analysis (LVA), was also highly
controversial, and its accuracy has been called into question in several published studies.98, 99, 100 Dreyer says
the new integrity management policy would not be limited to polygraphing but would include lifestyle
audits and background checks that go beyond the ‘basic screening’ currently being done. It is part of a more
holistic strategy that would also “reinvigorate the core values of what makes a ranger a ranger and made
them choose this path”. The new policy was approved on 23 November 2022 and the standard operating
procedure is currently in development.101

Getting a policy and an operating procedure in place is one thing. Implementing them is another.
While integrity tests, including polygraphing, are used widely in private game reserves and stipulated in
performance contracts, those lodges don’t face the uphill battle of SANParks as a government department
having to negotiate with national unions. Nor do they employ nearly as many staff.

Where a private reserve may need to conduct lifestyle audits

and polygraph 20 or 30 staff, SANParks has 400 rangers and
a total staff complement of 2 500. If polygraphs were limited
to those in enforcement, such as section rangers, field rangers
‘Rangers need and protection services, that would still necessitate around 600

somewhere to turn. They tests. The resources required would be enormous and swamp
SANParks investigators. And the cost would be immense. Each
need somewhere where polygraph test costs around R1 000. SANParks would likely

they will be heard’ need to source external help and funding.102

While integrity testing has worked well in the private sector,

SANParks faces distinct challenges. Staff are unionised
and efforts to implement testing could spark strike action. To ensure equitable implementation, all staff
must be polygraphed, which could prove prohibitively expensive without donor funding. The SANParks
operational budget was cut by 70% during the COVID pandemic and it could take the organisation at least
five years to recover.103

But donors have been leery of SANParks since 2016 when the Howard G Buffett Foundation suspended
US$14.6-million in funding – of a total grant of US$23.7-million – to combat rhino poaching. It cited
SANParks’ ‘inability to execute at even the most basic level’ or ‘overcome its own bureaucracy and turf
battles to do simple things such as meet our expenditure and reporting requirements’.104

12 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

Some private reserves have opted to pay severance packages to staff who fail polygraphs and background
tests to cut ties cleanly and avoid legal challenges. SANParks does not have that luxury.

Dreyer is keenly aware of the challenges she faces. ‘How do you get the whole workforce to work together
and trust each other again? It is going to take years to rebuild in Kruger, but it is something we have to do.’
That must involve creating the right forum or ‘safe place’ where rangers can speak openly about corruption
without fear of reprisals and where their broader concerns can be addressed.

‘How do you create a safe space in this world of no loyalty, no trust anymore? There’s no benefit to being a
whistleblower in South Africa, we all know that. But rangers need somewhere to turn. They need somewhere
where they will be heard. We must address that.’105

The ‘Wild East’

Mpumalanga’s violence sets it starkly apart from neighbouring rural provinces such as Limpopo and North
West. Over the past decade, Mpumalanga’s murder rate has increased by 42%, putting it on par with
Gauteng (with a 42% increase over the same period) and Western Cape (46%). Only KwaZulu-Natal, with
high levels of violent organised crime, taxi industry conflict and political murders, outstrips them all with a
68% increase.106

Chart 4: The murder rate increase, per province, 2012 – 2022

80

70 68%

60

50
42% 42% 46%
40 38%
32%
30
%

24%
20
9%
10

0
-3%
-10
-12%
-20
e

ga
Ca n
pe

Ca n
pe

ng

Ca n
e

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al
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es

ag
at

p
p
er

er

at
te
an

Zu
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te
W
St

st
th

er

es
au
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a-
or

av
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Fr

SA

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Source: Global Initiative Against Transational Organized Crime

The province faces a complex, corrosive threat from organised crime, which has grown virtually unimpeded
for decades. This was worsened by the hollowing-out of state and law enforcement agencies during the
presidency of Jacob Zuma and the disbandment of the Directorate for Special Operations, better known
as the Scorpions. Added to this were the gutting of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), police crime
intelligence units, the South African Revenue Service (SARS), the State Security Agency and a host of other
law enforcement agencies.107

The Mpumalanga Hawks organised crime unit, which has had significant successes investigating rhino
poaching, ATM bombing and cash-in-transit syndicates, is too small and under-resourced to confront the
enormity of the province’s organised crime problem. In 2020 and 2021, the unit lost two of its investigators.

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 13

The car in which Hawks organised crime investigator, Lieutenant-Colonel Leroy Bruwer, was
assassinated outside Mbombela

Photo: SAPS

Lieutenant-Colonel Leroy Bruwer, who was leading investigations into alleged rhino-poaching syndicate
bosses Petros Mabuza, ‘Big Joe’ Nyalunga and Clyde Mnisi, was killed in an ambush on his way to work in
March 2020.108, 109 To date, only one suspect has been arrested for his murder. In September 2021, Warrant-
Officer Gerrie le Grange was killed in a vehicle accident as he rushed to a crime scene.110

The South African Police Service (SAPS) in the province, meanwhile, is mired in an ugly internal struggle
for control. This has pitted Mpumalanga provincial police commissioner Lieutenant-General Semakaleng
Manamela against senior officers under her command, one of her predecessors who now runs a private
forensics investigations firm and a journalist.111 Manamela, who was appointed to the post in July 2021 – the
first woman to lead Mpumalanga’s police – positioned herself as being tough on internal corruption and
determined to clean out the rot in the police service.112

But a forensic report compiled by former Mpumalanga

police commissioner Thulani Ntobela was leaked to the
journalist – Riot Hlatshwayo of Rio-Jab Media, Limpopo
– who published the details on Facebook. It accuses
Mpumalanga faces Manamela of ‘a misuse of tea-club funds, nepotism and

a complex, corrosive possible corruption’. The report was based solely on

information and documentation provided to Ntobela by a
threat from whistleblower. The most severe claim involves the possible
misuse of more than R1.7 million in donations from
organised crime police station tea-club funds intended or functions and
gifts for speakers.

Manamela has applied for a protection order against Hlatshwayo and Ntobela. Her supporters say she is
being targeted by senior police implicated in criminal activities tied to illegal mining. Six police officers and a
state prosecutor have been arrested and charged with theft of coal, corruption and money laundering.113, 114

‘You can’t go to the police in the communities around the park because you don’t know who to trust,’ says
a senior manager in a private reserve in greater Kruger. ‘Police are either on the take or just too scared to
do anything.’115

In October 2022, a German tourist, Jörg Schnarr (67), was shot dead near Kruger’s Numbi gate a kilometre
from his destination.116, 117 South Africa’s police minister Bheki Cele was quick to visit the scene of yet another
criminal atrocity. Tourism minister Lindiwe Sisulu consoled Schnarr’s family while falsely claiming: ‘In the
27 years of government, there have been only three (tourist) deaths — that is a record of safety and one we
would like to keep.’118, 119 Three suspects were quickly apprehended and charged.

14 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

Prole – ‘Big Joe’ Nyalunga

In December 2011, police pulled over a Range ‘Big Joe’ Nyalunga during
Rover Sport on the N4 highway near Middelburg. a police raid on his house
There were two occupants: Joseph Nyalunga, The NPA obtained a
a former warrant officer at White River police preservation order for
station, and Conrad Nkuna, a Hazyview police the money found in
constable.120, 121 A search of the boot revealed Nyalunga’s properties.
R3.2 million in cash (around US$470 000 at the The basis was its link to
time) and a bag containing traces of animal unlawful activities and/
material. This was later linked through DNA analysis or use for the unlawful
to the killing of two white rhinos in Kruger’s hunting of rhinos and
Stolsnek area. Two months later, two Kruger field illicit dealing in and
guides, a ranger and a traffic officer were arrested smuggling of their
in connection with the incident.122, 123 horns and/or money
laundering. They also
Nyalunga and Nkuna were granted bail, but the
seized the Range Rover
police were not yet done. On 27 February 2012
and a Toyota Fortuner.130
and again on 2 March 2012, members of the SAPS
Organised Crime Unit in Mbombela conducted In the wake of the raids,
two operations targeting Nyalunga. An undercover a dozen additional
operative first sold two rhino horns to Nyalunga suspects were charged.
for R346 000. Then, during a second ‘buy-bust’ Among them were six
operation, he received four more horns for R370 000. Mozambicans, Timothy
Once the deal was done, he was arrested.124 Photo: SAPS
Mcube (44 at the time),
David Sigangwe (29),
Nyalunga had allegedly sold the first set of horns Calisto Massada (26), Zeka Santos (31), Checo Cossa
to a Vietnamese buyer in Bedfordview, east of (37) and Sam Mashaba (23). Four South Africans,
Johannesburg. Ngoc Cuong Pham and his wife including Nkuna, were also charged in the case:
Lan Anh Nguyen were arrested in May 2012 and Happy Zitha (37) from Calcutta, Tabang Shakwane
10 rhino horns were recovered at a property they (37) from Kaapmuiden and Elijah Ngubeni (39)
rented, together with R4 million in cash and from Kabokweni.131, 132
an elephant tusk. Pham was tried separately
By 2021, as the case continued to grind its
and sentenced to a fine of R1 million and five
way slowly through court postponement after
years’ imprisonment for possessing and dealing
postponement, one of the Mozambican suspects
in rhino horn. He received another five years for
had reportedly been deported and three had
racketeering, three of which were suspended.125
vanished, according to the NPA. The case has yet to
A search of one of Nyalunga’s residences in Mkhuhlu be concluded.133
led to the discovery of metal coffers containing just
In 2018, Nyalunga was arrested yet again in a
over R5 million (around US$735 000 at the time).126
significant crackdown led by the Hawks wildlife
Nyalunga was unemployed and ‘had no legitimate
crime unit, members of the SWAT-team-style police
income that could explain the huge amount of special task force, SANParks, the NPA, SARS and
cash’, police said.127 Further searches of properties the Department of Environmental Affairs. Project
owned and rented by Nyalunga in Mkhuhlu and Broadbill saw heavily armed police smash their way
elsewhere led police to more than 60 hunting knives through Nyalunga’s driveway gate in an armoured
and pangas, some still stained with blood. There police Nyala. He was taken into custody with crime
were also night-sight equipment, sound suppressors boss Petros Mabuza, commonly known as ‘Mr Big’
for .375 and .458 hunting rifles, stolen laptops and or by his clan name Mshengu, four other ex-cops
television sets, and an electronic money counter. and Clyde MnisI, who would later become a senior
A camera belonging to Nyalunga was also seized. traditional leader (see separate boxes on Mabuza
Among its images were those of a terrified young and Mnisi).134, 135
man, handcuffed in a foetal position around Nicknamed ‘Big Joe’ due to his enormous size,
a pole. In the background were a car battery, Nyalunga had been a serving police officer until he
jumper cables and cans of beer. He has never been resigned abruptly under a cloud in 2009. He had
identified and police fear he may be dead.128, 129 become the subject of an investigation into a cross-

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 15

 Heavily armed police raid ‘Big Joe’ Nyalunga’s Hazyview home in this screengrab from video shot from
a police helicopter

Photo: SAPS

border syndicate smuggling contraband cigarettes The case was postponed numerous times until it
and stolen cars into Mozambique.136 eventually ‘disappeared’ from the court roll with
all traces that it had ever been enrolled.140
In 2010, he was implicated in the kidnapping
and murder of a neighbour, an Eskom employee A decade after the murder, in a dawn raid
named Willy Shipalane (36). There were whispers in July 2020, a police task team adopting a
that the murder was related to a ‘business deal that ‘severe tactical response’ unceremoniously
went south’. Police divers recovered Shipalane’s smashed their way through Nyalunga’s driveway
body from Inyaka Dam on Ngwaritsane River, near gate in Hazyview for the second time in two
Bushbuckridge, after Nyalunga was questioned years.141 Nyalunga and Mulimi were arrested
and made several admissions. Shipalane had been and charged with Shipalane’s kidnapping and
murder. Seven months later, another suspect,
beaten to death, his feet bound together with wire
identified as Selby Nyalunga, accompanied by a
and weighted down with concrete blocks, before
lawyer, handed himself over to police.142 Today
being dumped in the dam.137, 138, 139
Nyalunga is viewed by investigators as a spent
Nyalunga and one of his alleged henchmen, Elvis force, out of money and, allegedly, with limited
Mulimi, were arrested at the time and charged. access to any weapons.

One of the properties belonging to Big Joe Nyalunga that was raided by police in Hazyview

Photo: Julian Rademeyer

16 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

But the area around Numbi gate has not been safe for decades and illustrates the broader problem of
organised crime in Mpumalanga and the failure of reactive policing. The murder of a tourist or a visitor to the
park was almost inevitable.

In July 2000, for example, 10 foreign tourists were hijacked in just three weeks.143 The Mpumalanga head of
safety and security then, Stanley Soko, expressed concern about a lack of arrests, saying that communities
were afraid to cooperate with police because of rogue, corrupt cops in their ranks. ‘We are trying hard to
change officers’ attitudes so people can give information to police freely without fear of being attacked or
killed by criminals,’ he said.144

In the 22 years since, little has changed. Eleven cases of vehicle hijacking and robbery targeting tourists were
recorded in the Numbi area between January and September 2022, including an incident where a teenage
girl was shot in the leg when two men opened fire on the car in which she was travelling with her family.145, 146

In December 2022, two months after Schnarr’s murder, two private security guards patrolling the road near
Numbi gate were shot and robbed of their firearms. Badly wounded, they narrowly escaped with their lives.
This time, no government ministers descended on the scene.147

These are not isolated incidents of violent and organised crime. Across Mpumalanga, heists and ATM
bombings, illegal mining, the pillaging of state infrastructure, car and truck hijackings, kidnappings, extortion
and wildlife crime are embedded and enmeshed.

Cash-in-transit heists peaked in Mpumalanga between 2016 and 2018, then dropped from 23 incidents in
2017/18 to 16 in 2018/19, 15 in 2019/20, the year that COVID struck, and then went up to 17 in 2020/21.148
It has witnessed some of the most violent cash-in-transit heists, with gangs routinely using explosives. It is
a quick and an easy way to access the heavily armoured vaults that most cash vans now use, retired police
general Bushie Engelbrecht says.

‘It is also not coincidental that most of these explosives attacks are happening in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and
Gauteng. These are mining areas. Mines use explosives and they have demolition men who know how to use
them. This is where the gangs go for help with explosives.’149

Kidnapping for ransom or extortion has risen dramatically across the country since 2016 due to foreign
syndicates shifting operations to South Africa and local copycat groups mimicking their modus operandi
but targeting South Africans. However, these cases account for only around 5% of all kidnappings. The police
define kidnapping as the ‘unlawful and intentional deprivation of a person’s freedom of movement or if such
person is a child, the unlawful, intentional deprivation of a parent of control over the child’.150

In Mpumalanga, 234 kidnappings – including those involving Kidnapped Nkangala District

ransom or extortion – were reported between April and municipal manager Margaret Skosana
June 2022, compared to 186 in the corresponding period in
2021. Between July and September 2022, 243 kidnappings
were recorded, compared to 171 in 2021.151 Victims include
vulnerable members of townships and informal settlements,
migrants, prominent businesspeople and their families –
with ransoms calibrated accordingly.

In October 2022, Nkangala District municipal manager

Margaret Skosana and her driver Gugu Mtsweni were
kidnapped outside the entrance to the municipal offices.
The abductors posed as police officers and said they were
arresting them. Skosana’s car and her wheelchair were
found by police outside Middelburg. The pair was held for
a week before being dumped next to the N14 highway in
Diepsloot, Gauteng.

The reason for the kidnapping remains a mystery. In

an interview, Skosana said it made little sense. Photo: Nkangala District Municipality

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 17

One of the kidnappers hinted that she had ‘enemies’, she said. ‘I said, “I don’t know of any enemies”. He then
said: “That’s why you’re here. You do have enemies’’.’152, 153, 154

Elsewhere in the province, illegal mining syndicates operate openly, often with the assistance of corrupt
police officers. Data compiled by Pan African Resources at its Barberton Mines Complex, which includes
Fairview, Sheba, New Consort and Agnes mines, show that 3 541 suspected zama zamas have been arrested
at its operations since January 2020. Nearly 70% of those arrested by mine security are foreign nationals,
predominantly from nearby Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Between August 2019 and October 2021, 514 illegal mining cases were opened at the Barberton police
station. In September 2021, following the influx of zama zamas at Sheba, there were 115 arrests. Usually,
foreign nationals granted bail disappear or are rearrested, often using newly acquired fraudulent identities.

Pan African Resources says there has been a ‘significant’ increase in ‘violent and organised crime numbers’ in
and around Barberton in recent years linked to illegal mining syndicates, including murder, rape, robberies
and ATM bombings. There are some indications, too, that gangs of illegal miners have links to rhino-poaching
networks that provide them with protection and weapons for a fee.

In September 2022, security officers at a mine in the Barberton area came under rifle fire from suspected
zama zamas. While not confirmed, there is speculation that the stolen rifles may have originated from
poaching networks.155 ‘With poaching down in Kruger, rhinos being dehorned and the population growing
smaller, it makes sense that poachers would need to explore other ways of earning an income,’ a former
policeman, now involved in the private security industry in Mpumalanga, told ENACT.

“Some of the main players in the poaching space are involved in illegal mining and other organised crime,”
another investigator said in an interview. “The funding generated by one crime is used to fund other crime.”156

Illegal mining cases, however, result in high levels of repeat offenders as prosecution rates are very low
and sentencing lenient. The criminal justice system is unable to cope with the volume of cases, prompting
mining companies to implement their own security strategies, investigations and case management systems
to track dockets through the criminal justice system.

Between June 2021 and June 2022, 445 cases were opened, 376 of which went to court. Of these, just 69
resulted in guilty convictions, while 76 were struck off the roll. In 83 cases, warrants of arrest were issued for
suspects who failed to appear in court.

Police seize makeshift phendukas used by illegal miners to refine gold near Barberton along
with detonation cords and explosives

Photos: Supplied

18 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

The lawless Lowveld
To understand how organised crime has flourished in
Mpumalanga and around Kruger National Park, you need
Mpumalanga is
look only at its politics. Bordered by Mozambique and besieged by a
Eswatini, Mpumalanga in South Africa’s northeast is one of
the country’s smallest provinces. Its name means ‘the place
seemingly unending
where the sun rises’. litany of scandals,
Nearly 70% of its land area is used for agriculture and it assassinations and
accounts for more than 80% of the country’s coal production,
most of it destined for use in power parastatal Eskom’s dozen
kidnappings
ageing coal-fired power plants dotting the province. It is rich
in mineral wealth, with mines still producing ore 140 years
after gold was first discovered there. And it has abundant and
diverse fauna and flora, making it a primary tourist destination
and a key gateway to Kruger National Park.157, 158

But it is also widely regarded as one of South Africa’s most

corrosively corrupt provinces. It is besieged by a seemingly
unending litany of scandals, assassinations of high-level political
figures and whistleblowers and rising numbers of kidnappings
– most recently of the Nkangala District municipal manager.
Illicit economies are diverse and evolving. In mineral and
natural wealth, criminal networks have entrenched themselves,
exploiting the void left by absent, ineffective and corrupt local
and provincial governments and police.159, 160

Veteran Mpumalanga journalist Sizwe sama Yende describes

a province crippled by a succession of corrupt actors and
administrations. It is, he contends, ‘blinded by the glitter of
public resources it holds in its hands’ and ‘unable to resist the
urge to become rapacious as if government was closing shop in
one hour’.

‘It is quite common to find an official who was fired or demoted

for corruption a few years back now occupying a position at
the apex of a department without any rehabilitation or punitive
process having taken place,’ he writes. In this newspaper
columns, he dubs the bent bureaucrats and corrupt politicians
the ‘bulletproof crew’.161

Mpumalanga was established in 1994, cobbled together from

the Eastern Transvaal, the apartheid-era black ‘homeland’
of KaNgwane and parts of the homelands of Lebowa and
Gazankulu. These ‘Bantustans’, as they were otherwise known,
were the creatures of apartheid policies aimed at fostering
‘separate development’ along racial and ethnic lines. They were
the product of violent forced removals, cynically exploited once
established as ‘labour reservoirs and dumping grounds for the
unemployed, the elderly and the unwanted’. As with six other
newly created regional governments in South Africa in 1994,
Mpumalanga absorbed homeland administrations into the new
provincial bureaucracy.162

The absorption of apartheid-era administrations and

bureaucracies, with ANC structures in the newly democratic

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 19

country, extended to the police. Several political agreements prevented the radical transformation of the
police force. The ‘sunset clause’ guaranteed apartheid public servants their jobs for five years following the
1994 elections. This included elements of apartheid’s security branch enforcers, who would find themselves
working together with former foes in the ANC’s department of intelligence and security in new police
intelligence structures.

Another agreement saw the absorption of subsidiary and informal policing structures such as the
‘kitskonstabels’ and the railway and municipal police. The 10 homeland police forces, comprising nearly
29 000 police, were also amalgamated. Many of the new police were poorly educated and had received little
or no professional police training.163, 164, 165

‘Certainly, the new national police service was far from homogenous,’ write the Institute for Security Studies’
Gareth Newham and Andrew Faull. ‘Its members spoke different languages, wore different uniforms, carried
different types of firearms, used different ranking systems and had received different levels of training. An
estimated third of the 120 000 members were functionally illiterate, 30 000 did not have driver’s licences and
20 000 had criminal records.

‘The scale of the problem following the transition was evidenced by the fact that by 2000, as many as 14 600
members of the police service faced criminal charges ranging from murder, rape, armed robbery, assault,
theft and bribery to reckless driving.’166

Apartheid’s ‘homelands’ were notoriously corrupt. Lebowa’s chief minister Nelson Ramodike, a former
traffic policeman, ran a string of state-funded businesses through various brothers and cousins, lived lavishly
and flaunted a personal fleet of three top-of-the-range Mercedes Benzes. A year before South Africa’s first
democratic elections, 200 justice department officials in Lebowa received 100% pay raises. Separately, in
an evidently corrupt deal, Lebowa Tender Board, despite objections from three of its members, approved a
tender for R15 million worth of cleaning chemicals, enough to supply the government for seven years.167

In KaNgwane, civil servants and politicians took advantage of two dubious official schemes that cost
taxpayers R4.6-million to buy their official cars at bargain-basement prices. A Ford Laser, valued at around
R18 000 at the time, was sold for a token 65 cents.168

From those ill-fated beginnings, Mpumalanga’s

administration would be ‘characterised by extreme forms of
graft among political notables’, historian Tom Lodge wrote
in the mid-1990s. He argued that ‘it would be reasonable to
From ill-fated beginnings, expect the continuation of a certain amount of corruption’

Mpumalanga would be with the absorption of former homeland administrators into

new provincial governments.169
‘characterised by graft
One example is David Mkhwanazi, who had been a
among political notables’ minister in the KaNgwane homeland. As the ‘godfather-like’
environmental affairs member of the executive committee
(MEC) in the new Mpumalanga provincial administration, he
was dogged by scandal from the day he took office. He allowed an extraordinary R20-billion deal secretly
ceding all commercial development rights to the province’s flagship public reserves and tourist sites to
a Dubai-based group. Millions of rand were diverted from Mpumalanga Parks Board through a network
of front companies into the ANC’s elections war chest, leading to the near destruction of the province’s
conservation and tourism infrastructure.170

In an interview in 1998, Mpumalanga’s first premier, Mathews Phosa, rationalised the corruption during his
tenure, saying it had been inherited from the apartheid government. ‘We found the culture of corruption in
this system, we found it there. When you talk about transforming the civil service, it is introducing new ethics
in the environment. But it is not only government that has to be transformed; it’s the whole society, the
moral values of our society. Our society has been so brutalised and degraded, black and white … we are all
traumatised in our own different ways.

20 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

‘I am not making excuses for the new corruption by the new
people. There is a culture of corruption in the system, in society.
It is there in the police force, in the civil service, in justice, it’s ‘There is a culture of
there. It comes out of every pore of our society and we need to
deal with that. The whole society must look at itself and say we corruption in the
need a new course.’171
system, in society …
The scandals that roiled the Mpumalanga government and It comes out of every
its administration in the first years of democracy ensured that
it could not chart a ‘new course’. Coupled with the fractious pore of our society
politics of ANC branches, political patronage networks, a string and we need to deal
of assassinations and mysterious disappearances and the ‘glitter
of public resources’ to which politics gave access, it created a with that’
perfect storm in which organised crime could thrive.

Enter David ‘DD’ Mabuza, a charismatic and enormously

influential figure in Mpumalanga who rose to South Africa’s
deputy presidentship. He has been described variously as a
‘ruthless chameleon’172 and ‘a master political entrepreneur’
who wrote the ‘playbook of political chicanery’.173 He calls
himself ‘The Cat’.174

In 2009, Mabuza become the premier of Mpumalanga. This was

the pivotal year Jacob Zuma became South Africa’s president,
heralding a ‘lost decade’ of state capture by corrupt actors and
the hollowing out and neutering of enforcement agencies and
the prosecuting authority. It was a reward for his support of
Zuma at the ANC’s 2007 elective conference in Polokwane.175

Mabuza held on to the premiership for nearly a decade,

consolidating power, growing the provincial ANC branches
into a hugely significant power base and finally becoming
‘kingmaker’ at the ANC’s 2017 elective conference. There he
sided with Cyril Ramaphosa, ensuring his election as ANC
president and, consequently, president of South Africa.176

Mabuza, a former school teacher and principal in KaNgwane,

was Mpumalanga’s first provincial MEC for education, recruited
by Phosa. In 1998, Phosa sacked him after he cooked the books
on Mpumalanga’s matric pass rate, falsely claiming it had
soared from 51% to an astonishing 71%. Ndaweni Mahlangu,
who replaced Phosa as premier, brought Mabuza back into
the provincial cabinet as housing MEC, memorably saying: ‘It is
acceptable for politicians to lie. It is nothing new.’177, 178

Controversy followed Mabuza as he rose to provincial

premiership. There were tales of reporters in the province being
paid off to write savage takedowns of his opponents. There
were whispers about the sources of his money and widespread
allegations of him handing out wads of cash to supporters and
acolytes during audiences at his farm near Barberton.179

Mabuza promoted the construction of large boarding schools

in rural areas, with costs rapidly ballooning from around
US$11-million to US$30-million. Funds were allegedly diverted
to bolster Mabuza’s ANC recruitment drive in the province,
providing jobs, cash, even lunch to entice people to sign up.

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 21

This ‘illegally inflated the party’s membership rolls by paying people’s annual dues with government money’.
ANC membership rocketed 190%, outstripping the national increase of less than 60% and ensuring the
province became a political powerhouse.180

Another scandal swirling around Mabuza – dating back to 2002 – involves a scheme to defraud land reform
programmes. Mabuza, who had served as MEC of land affairs, environment and agriculture, is accused,
with a dozen others, of obtaining beneficial control of vast tracts of land under land claim, sometimes
fraudulently. He allegedly then sold it to the Land Claims Commission at massively inflated prices.181 He
is also implicated in a scheme that ‘exploited the province’s biodiversity by monetising the killing of so-
called problem animals’. In December 2022, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) lodged a criminal
complaint with the NPA’s new Investigating Directorate.182

Mabuza has rebutted allegations of corruption levelled against him, arguing that he is the subject of
‘baseless exaggerations and claims that have been peddled by those who have sought to tarnish my name’.
In a letter to The New York Times in 2018, he wrote: ‘I abhor corruption. Any fiction to the contrary or “fake
news” is laughable.’183

For more than a decade, Mabuza has been dogged by allegations linking him to several high-profile
political killings in the province, claims he has vigorously denied.184 In July 2022, he pushed ahead with a
defamation suit against a former ANC member, Pompie Letwaba, who stated publicly that during Mabuza’s
tenure ‘people began perishing one by one’. According to Mabuza’s lawyers, Letwaba claimed that Mabuza
was responsible for killing whistleblowers, knew the ‘masterminds’ of murders and that, during his time as
premier, 27 people were assassinated and ‘evaporated into thin air’.

In 2010, the Sunday Times published an investigation into Mpumalanga’s ‘hit squad’ and the murders
of a dozen senior politicians and bureaucrats since 1998. They included Jimmy Mohlala, the Mbombela
municipal speaker murdered in January 2009 after questioning contracts related to the Mbombela FIFA
World Cup soccer stadium. There was also Sammy Mpatlanyane, the communications director in the
provincial department of arts, culture and sport, who was gunned down at his home in Mbombela. This
was ostensibly because a senior ‘ANC boss’ and his political allies saw him as an obstacle to lucrative
World Cup tenders.185

In October 2010, James Nkambule, the whistleblower who had

revealed information about the links between senior political
figures and assassinations in the province, died in mysterious
circumstances. A post-mortem report found a ‘white foamy
The Kruger’s struggle material’ in Nkambule’s throat and windpipe and brownish

mirrors South Africa’s fluid in his stomach ‘suggestive of poison ingestion’. ‘There is
no smoke without fire,’ Mpumalanga’s chief medical officer Dr
struggle against Gantcho Gantchev told the paper.186 Poisoning is a relatively

organised crime common method of murder in Mpumalanga. Mabuza himself

has claimed to have been poisoned, prompting long sojourns
to medical facilities in Russia.187, 188

Political murders, rarely solved, continue to this day. On 4 November 2022, Gert Sibande ANC branch deputy
chairman Muzi Manyathi was shot several times after stopping at a petrol station in Mkhondo, formerly Piet
Retief.189, 190 The murder came just days after Manyathi spoke publicly about an incident in which he was
threatened by a gunman. ‘…[W]e don’t know if we will come back alive because there are always gunshots
fired … [T]here is no peace in our communities,’ Manyathi said.191

Conclusion and recommendations

Kruger National Park’s struggle mirrors South Africa’s struggle against organised crime over the past decade.
Criminal networks today pose an existential threat to the country’s citizenry, democracy, political integrity
and economic growth. The Kruger exists in a landscape where organised crime has metastasised and
become deeply embedded. The criminal networks, particularly those operating in Mpumalanga, which
encompasses the park’s southern half, are diverse, highly connected and violent. Decades of corruption,

22 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

A truck burns after violent protests, allegedly fomented by community leaders with known
links to illegal mining syndicates, erupted outside Barberton mines

Photo: Supplied

political instability and political murders have shaped the province, creating a fertile environment for
organised crime, illicit economies and criminal governance in towns and villages.

Kruger’s challenge is immense. Turning it around will require addressing corruption in the park and
mending deeply fractured relations between staff and management. With operational budgets slashed by
70% during the COVID pandemic and recovery likely to take as long as five years, the resources needed are
severely limited.

Any efforts to counter corruption within Kruger need to be coupled with carefully targeted efforts address
broader criminal ecosystems in Mpumalanga. That will require far greater resources and external support
than the Hawks in the province currently have, coupled with a clear assessment of the province’s criminal
ecosystem and actors, the interactions between disparate criminal markets and an evaluation of the harms
associated with them that could guide the prioritisation of interventions.

• To be effective, short-term, reactive policing tactics must be replaced with a long-term strategy to counter
and disrupt key criminal networks.

• Targeted assessments, intelligence-gathering and investigations can identify high-level criminal actors
and networks in markets causing the greatest harm. Coupled with a prosecutor-driven organised
crime combatting strategy and judicious prosecutions of principal actors, this could gradually widen
investigations, arrests and prosecutions.

• Critical financial investigation and intelligence gathering skills need to be bolstered significantly. This is
particularly so in SAPS, where they are noticeably absent, but also more strategically in the local Hawks
unit, which has shown an ability to make inroads into organised crime.

• Far greater steps must be taken to ensure the safety of Hawks investigators and prosecutors involved in
high-risk organised crime cases in the province.

Within the Kruger, steps are already being taken to root out corrupt elements and the recent board approval
for an integrity management policy is a major step forward. The task is enormous and will require:

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 23

• A clear long-term commitment from political leadership and from SANParks and its board to address
park corruption transparently and ensure that it is done fairly and with consequences that are enacted
swiftly and consistently.

• Effective implementation of a transparent and fair integrity management policy, with background and
criminal record checks, polygraphing and, where necessary, lifestyle audits and investigations for all staff,
resulting in swift and consistent consequences when necessary.

• Re-establishing professionalism, motivation and trust by embedding shared core values, like discipline
and integrity, at both leadership level and among staff, and building these into all selection, assessment,
management, skills development and leadership systems.

• Ensuring that staff have greater support, starting with understanding how rangers are being approached
and protecting them from approaches, as well as focusing on overall mental, physical and social wellness,
including improving general employee, for example, training in financial management.

• Improving transparency and internal communications at all levels within Kruger National including
the creation of safe spaces and guided dialogues in which concerns and grievances can be raised
and addressed

• Public-private partnerships with banks, auditing firms and the Hawks that will expand limited resources
to investigate financial flows between poaching networks and park staff.

• Strategic and targeted investigations with support of outside agencies or the private sector, given the
scale of corruption in the park and the limited resources of SANParks’ internal investigations unit.

• Prosecutions of high-level actors and possible amnesties for low-level offenders who cooperate
with investigators.

• The creation of an independent whistleblowing mechanism, with all necessary protections and rewards,
through which corruption can be reported, evaluated and investigated.

24 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

Notes
1 Jacob Dlamini, Safari nation: A social history of the 14 CITES, Nineteenth meeting of the Conference of the
Kruger National Park. Ohio University Press, 2020. Parties Panama City (Panama), 14 – 25 November
2 Brett Hilton-Barber and Lee R Berger, The prime 2022, https://cites.org/sites/default/files/documents/
origins guide to exploring Kruger: Your key to E-CoP19-75-R1.pdf CoP19 Doc 75 (Rev 1).
unlocking Africa’s wildlife treasure, Prime Origins, 15 259 rhino poached in South Africa in first six months
2004. of 2022, Department of Environmental Affairs,
3 International Rhino Foundation, Updated poaching www.dffe.gov.za/mediarelease/creecy_259rhino-
numbers from Kruger National Park, 20 January poached, accessed 8 December 2022.
2022, https://rhinos.org/blog/updated-poaching-num- 16 Interviews, SANParks officials and staff, September
bers-from-kruger-national-park/. 2022.
4 Sam M Ferreira et al, The impact of COVID-19 17 Sizwe Sama Yende, Kruger National Park Mum on
government responses on rhinoceroses in Kruger Report into Abuse, Racism and Torture, City Press,
National Park, African Journal of Wildlife Research https://www.news24.com/citypress/news/kruger-
51, No 1, September 2021, 100–110. national-park-mum-on-report-into-abuse-racism-
https://doi.org/10.3957/056.051.0100. and-torture-20211106, accessed 17 January 2023.
5 Kruger rhino poaching update: 75% population 18 Internal SANParks report.
reduction in 10 years. Africa Geographic, 20 January
19 Mark Shaw and Julian Rademeyer, ‘A flawed war:
2022, https://africageographic.com/stories/kruger-
Rethinking ‘green militarisation’ in the Kruger
rhino-poaching-update-75-population-reduction-in-
10-years/. National Park, Politikon 43, No 2 (3 May 2016), 173–92.
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6 Gayle Burgess et al, African and Asian rhinoceroses:
Status, conservation and trade: Report from the IUCN 20 Annette Hübschle, On the record: Interview with
Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) African and Major-General Johan Jooste (retired), South
Asian Rhino specialist groups and TRAFFIC (CITES African National Parks head of special projects.
CoP19 Doc 75), 2022, https://cites.org/sites/default/ SA Crime Quarterly, No 60 (June 2017): 61–68.
files/documents/E-CoP19-75-R1.pdf. https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3108/2017/v0n60a2776.
7 Sam M Ferreira et al, The impact of COVID-19 21 Interview, Cathy Dreyer, head ranger: Kruger National
government responses on rhinoceroses in Kruger Park, 12 October 2022.
National Park, African Journal of Wildlife Research 22 Interview, former police investigator now security
51, No 1 (September 2021), 100–110. consultant, 31 August 2022.
https://doi.org/10.3957/056.051.0100.
23 A detective pursued rhino poachers. Now he’s dead,
8 Sade Moneron, Nicola Okes and Julian Rademeyer, The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/
‘Pendants, powder and pathways: Smuggling routes
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and techniques in the illicit trade in African rhino
bruwer.html, accessed 8 December 2022.
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ber 2017, www.traffic.org/publications/reports/pen- 24 Tembile Sgqolana, Wildlife warrior: The violent death
dants-powder-and-pathways/. of Timbavati ranger Anton Mzimba mourned by
conservationists worldwide, Daily Maverick, 28 July
9 Julian Rademeyer. Tipping point: Transnational
2022, www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-07-29-
organised crime and the ‘war’ on poaching, Part 1 of
the-violent-death-of-timbavati-ranger-anton mzimba-
a two-part investigation into rhino horn trafficking in
mourned-by-conservationists-worldwide/.
southern Africa. Global Initiative against Transnational
Organised Crime, Geneva, Switzerland, https://glo- 25 ‘Wildlife warrior’ and game ranger Anton Mzimba
balinitiative.net/analysis/rhino-tipping-point/. shot dead, News24,www.news24.com/news24/south-
africa/news/wildlife-warrior-and-game-ranger-anton-
10 Tom Milliken and Jo Shaw, The South Africa-Vietnam
mzimba-shot-dead-20220727, accessed 8 December
rhino horn trade nexus: A deadly combination
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of institutional lapses, corrupt wildlife industry
professionals and Asian crime syndicates, TRAFFIC, 26 Interview, confidential source, information cross-
Johannesburg, South Africa, 2012, www.traffic.org/ checked with two other informed sources, September
site/assets/files/2662/south_africa_vietnam_rhino_ 2022.
horn_nexus.pdf. 27 Scott Ramsay, Interview with Kruger’s anti-poaching
11 Julian Rademeyer, Killing for profit: Exposing the chief, Africa Geographic (blog), 19 August 2014,
illegal rhino horn trade, Zebra Press, Cape Town, https://africageographic.com/stories/interview-with-
South Africa, 2012. krugers-anti-poaching-chief/.
12 Rhino horn trafficking as a form of transnational 28 Africa Check, Factsheet: Unemployment statistics
organised crime 2012-2021, The Hague: Wildlife in South Africa explained, 1212-0303 2014,
Justice Commission, October 2022, https:// http://africacheck.org/fact-checks/factsheets/
wildlifejustice.org/rhino-horn-trafficking-report/. factsheet-unemployment-statistics-south-africa-
13 Rosaleen Duffy, Security and conservation: The explained.
politics of the illegal wildlife trade, Yale University 29 Statistics South Africa, Quarterly Labour Force Survey,
Press, 2022. Quarter 3: 2022, www.statssa.gov.za/publications/

Research Paper 36 | January 2023 25

 P0211/P02113rdQuarter2022.pdf, accessed msspeechdetail.php?nid=17472, accessed
29 November 2022. 9 December 2022.
30 The comparative financial and economic 46 Ibid.
performance of protected areas in the 47 Hawks deal rhino poaching syndicates a huge blow,
greater Kruger National Park, South Africa: news.africaintouch.co.za/article/2018/9/20/hawks-
Functional diversity and resilience in the deal-rhino-poaching-syndicates-a-huge-blow,459/,
socio-economics of a landscape-scale reserve accessed 9 December 2022.
network, Journal of Sustainable Tourism,
48 Polisievrou vas wat glo by renostersindikaat betrek
Vol 28, No 8, www.tandfonline.com/doi/
word, Netwerk24,www.netwerk24.com/netwerk24/
figure/10.1080/09669582.2020.1723602, accessed
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word-20180920, accessed 25 November 2022.
31 Jacob ST Dlamini, Safari nation: A social history of the
49 Companies and Intellectual Property Commission,
Kruger National Park. Ohio University Press, 2020.
director report https://search.windeed.co.za/Director-
32 Kruger tourism continues to be hampered by Result/307798045, accessed 24 November 2022.
protests, Lowvelder, 16 September 2022.
50 www.facebook.com/people/Phendulani-Lodge-
https://lowvelder.co.za/797197/kruger-tourism-
Mkhuhlu/100063617209032/.
continues-to-be-hampered-by-protests/.
51 Hawks deal rhino poaching syndicates a huge blow,
33 Interview, Shabalala resident, 6 September 2022.
http://news.africaintouch.co.za/article/2018/9/20/
34 Annette Hübschle, Community and community hawks-deal-rhino-poaching-syndicates-a-huge-
practitioners’ attitudes, perspectives and perceptions blow,459/, accessed 9 December 2022.
of protected areas, conservation and community
52 ‘These are the guys making millions’ – Hawks
safety in the context of illegal wildlife trade, WWF
after busting alleged rhino horn syndicate,
South Africa, July 2021, www.researchgate.net/
www.polity.org.za/article/these-are-the-guys-making-
publication/353177374_Community_and_com-
millions-hawks-after-busting-alleged-rhino-horn-
munity_practitioners%27_attitudes_perspectives_
syndicate-2018-09-19, accessed 9 December 2022.
and_perceptions_of_protected_areas_conserva-
tion_and_community_safety_in_the_context_of_ille- 53 Video: Big Joe, Mr Big’s bail application postponed
gal_wildlife_trade?channel=doi&linkId=60eecbe016f- as crowd calls for their freedom, Lowvelder,
9f31300803804&showFulltext=true. 27 September 2018, https://lowvelder.co.za/452691/
video-big-joe-mr-bigs-bail-application-postponed-
35 Jane Carruthers, The Kruger National Park: A social
crowd-calls-freedom/.
and political history, University of Natal Press, 1995.
54 Alleged rhino poachers get bail, Lowvelder,
36 SANParks annual report 2021/22, www.sanparks.org/
2 November 2018, https://lowvelder.co.za/457805/
assets/docs/general/annual-report-2022.pdf.
videos-breaking-news-alleged-rhino-poachers-get-
37 Ibid. bail/.
38 Jim Tan, Wildlife rangers face a ‘toxic mix’ of mental 55 Ibid.
strain and lack of support, Mongabay, 31 May 2018,
56 Big Joe and murder co-accused released on
https://therevelator.org/wildlife-rangers-strain- bail, Lowvelder, 24 July 2020, https://lowvelder.
support/. co.za/629601/big-joe-and-co-murder-accused-
39 Malibongwe Dayimani, ‘Buffalo bull kills field ranger released-on-bail/.
at Kruger National Park, News24, www.news24.com/ 57 www.sowetanlive.co.za/authors/khoza-mandla,
news24/southafrica/news/bull-buffalo-kills-field- Rhino poaching kingpin gunned down in Hazyview,
ranger-at-kruger-national-park-20220512, accessed SowetanLIVE, https://www.sowetanlive.co.za/news/
9 December 2022. south-africa/2021-06-17-rhino-poaching-kingpin-
40 Global Initiative, Tipping point: Transnational gunned-down-in-hazyview/, accessed 9 December
organised crime and the war on rhino poaching, 2022.
https://globalinitiative.net/analysis/rhino-tipping- 58 Eyewitnesses tell of shooting of ‘Mr Big’, Lowvelder,
point/, accessed 8 December 2022. 18 June 2021, https://lowvelder.co.za/734077/
41 Interview, confidential source, information cross- eyewitnesses-tell-of-shooting-of-mr-big/.
checked with two other informed sources, September 59 Mshengu’s co-accused appear in the high court,
2022. Mpumalanga News, 11 November 2021,
42 Clyde Mnisi Facebook page www.facebook.com/clyde. https://mpumalanganews.co.za/403257/mshengus-
mnisi.9, 29 October 2022. co-accused-appear-in-the-high-court/.
43 Mpumalanga Department of Cooperative Governance 60 Gayle Burgess et al, African and Asian rhinoceroses:
and Traditional Affairs Facebook page www.facebook. Status, conservation and trade: Report from the IUCN
com/MPCogta/, 29 October 2022. Species Survival Commission (IUCN SSC) African and
44 Hawks deal rhino poaching syndicates a huge blow, Asian rhino specialist groups and TRAFFIC (CITES
news.africaintouch.co.za/article/2018/9/20/hawks- CoP19 Doc 75), 2022, https://cites.org/sites/default/
deal-rhino-poaching-syndicates-a-huge-blow,459/, files/documents/E-CoP19-75-R1.pdf.
accessed 9 December 2022. 61 Interview, Dreyer, 12 October 2022.
45 South African Police Service, media statement, 62 Mshengu’s co-accused appear in the high court,
20 September 2018, www.saps.gov.za/newsroom/ Mpumalanga News, 11 November 2021,

26 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

 https://mpumalanganews.co.za/403257/mshengus- 21 September 2018, https://lowvelder.co.za/451463/
co-accused-appear-in-the-high-court/. poaching-syndicates-big-joe-mr-bigs-run-ins-law/.
63 Interview, SANParks official, 15 October 2022. 80 A detective pursued rhino poachers. Now he’s
64 The killing of a ranger protecting rhinos, Mozambican dead – The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.
Anton Mzimba, raises fears for conservation efforts, com/2020/03/19/world/europe/south-africa-rhino-
17 August 2022. https://clubofmozambique.com/ poaching-leroy-bruwer.html, accessed 8 December
news/the-killing-of-a-ranger-protecting-rhinos- 2022.
mozambican-anton-mzimba-raises-fears-for- 81 Interview, law enforcement officer, 14 March 2022.
conservation-efforts-223148/. 82 Relatives of former field rangers ‘linked to wildlife
65 Interview, Ruben de Kock, operations manager of trafficking’ arrested for money laundering, News24,
LEAD Ranger, 3 September 2022. www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/
66 Tembile Sgqolana, Wildlife warrior: The violent death relatives-of-former-field-rangers-linked-to-wildlife-
of Timbavati ranger Anton Mzimba mourned by trafficking-arrested-for-money-laundering-20221207,
accessed 8 December 2022.
conservationists worldwide, Daily Maverick, 28 July
2022, https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022- 83 Interviews with law enforcement and conservation-
07-29-the-violent-death-of-timbavati-ranger-anton- ists, October 2022.
mzimba-mourned-by-conservationists-worldwide/. 84 Interview SANParks official, 19 December 2022.
67 Manhunt for three men who shot, killed ranger 85 Relatives of former field rangers ‘linked to wildlife
Anton Mzimba and wounded wife, News24, trafficking’ arrested for money laundering, News24,
www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/ www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/
manhunt-on-for-3-men-who-shot-killed-ranger- relatives-of-former-field-rangers-linked-to-wildlife-
anton-mzimba-and-wounding-wife-20220728, trafficking-arrested-for-money-laundering-20221207,
accessed 8 December 2022. accessed 9 December 2022.
68 Interview, conservation manager, greater Kruger 86 Nine arrested for money laundering related to rhino
National Park, 22 November 2022. poaching – LNN, Lowvelder, https://lowvelder.co.za/
69 Interview, Dreyer, 12 October 2022. lnn/1210396/9-arrested-for-money-laundering-
related-to-rhino-poaching/, accessed 9 December
70 Annette Hübschle, Community and community
2022.
practitioners’ attitudes, perspectives and perceptions
of protected areas, conservation and community 87 Media statement: Two wanted suspects arrested by
safety in the context of illegal wildlife trade, WWF the Hawks for money laundering, www.saps.gov.za/
South Africa, July 2021, www.researchgate.net/ newsroom/msspeechdetail.php?nid=43857,
publication/353177374_Community_and_com- 15 December 2022.
munity_practitioners%27_attitudes_perspectives_ 88 Jonisayi Maromo, ‘Wanted’ siblings arrested for
and_perceptions_of_protected_areas_conserva- allegedly paying Kruger National Park rangers for
tion_and_community_safety_in_the_context_of_ille- info to aid poachers, www.iol.co.za/news/crime-
gal_wildlife_trade?channel=doi&linkId=60eecbe016f- and-courts/wanted-siblings-arrested-for-allegedly-
9f31300803804&showFulltext=true. paying-kruger-national-park-rangers-for-info-to-aid-
71 Interview, law enforcement officer, 31 August 2022. poachers-03f950e1-9fc1-4ea4-a563-7d6f77472e29,
16 December 2022.
72 Interview, Dreyer, 12 October 2022.
89 CITES, Nineteenth meeting of the Conference of the
73 Sizwe sama Yende, Rhino poaching suspect ‘Mr Big’
Parties Panama City (Panama), 14 – 25 November
killed in a hit, News24, 18 June 2021, www.news24.
2022, https://cites.org/sites/default/files/documents/E-
com/citypress/news/rhino-poaching- suspect-mr-big-
CoP19-75-R1.pdf CoP19 Doc 75 (Rev 1).
killed-in-a-hit-20210618.
90 Interview, SANParks official, 18 January 2023.
74 Rhino poaching kingpin gunned down in Hazyview,
91 Ibid.
SowetanLIVE, 17 June 2021, www.sowetanlive.co.za/
news/south-africa/2021-06-17-rhino-poaching-king- 92 Ibid.
pin-gunned-down-in-hazyview. 93 Noxolo Majavu, ‘Former Kruger field rangers
75 Peter Borchert, Mabuza’s assassination – the death of sentenced to seven years for poaching, City Press,
an alleged kingpin and the complex social fabric of www.news24.com/citypress/news/former-kruger-
rhino poaching, Rhino Review, 30 June 2021, field-rangers-sentenced-to-seven-years-for-poach-
https://rhinoreview.org/mabuzas-assassination-the- ing-20221207, accessed 9 December 2022.
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76 Petros Mshengu Mabuza’s funeral service day 1, 96 Interview, Dreyer, 12 October 2022.
2021,www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qKruKQVgjo.
97 Johan Jooste, Rhino war: A general’s bold strategy in
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2021, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yQqVbIiDWTE. Africa, 2021.
78 Petros Mshengu Mabuza’s send off, 2021, 98 More bad news for voice ‘lie detection’, Discover
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79 Arisa Janse van Rensburg, Poaching syndicates: Big more-bad-news-for-voice-lie-detection, accessed
Joe and Mr Big’s run-ins with the law, Lowvelder, 9 December 2022.

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of truth and deception during police questioning, 117 Tumelo Dibakwane, German tourist shot and killed
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103 Ibid.
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net/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/GI-TOC-Strategic- Politicsweb, www.politicsweb.co.za/politics/npa-
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108 A detective pursued rhino poachers. Now he’s dead, 122 Ibid.
– The New York Times, www.nytimes.com/2020/03/19/ 123 Poaching accused visit Kruger National Park
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109 Chelsea Pieterse, Man implicated in murder of 124 Vietnamese national found guilty on poaching
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28 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

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162 Rehana Rossouw, Predator politics: Mabuza, Fred 177 Justin Arenstein, South Africa: Politicians should not
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30 Landscape of fear: crime, corruption and murder in greater Kruger

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Julian Rademeyer is Director: East and Southern Africa: Global Initiative against
Transnational Organised Crime. Previously a project leader at TRAFFIC, the
international wildlife trade monitoring network, the former investigative journalist
is the author of Killing for Profit – Exposing the illegal rhino horn trade.

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