WILDLEX

The appellants applied twice for permits to import and keep lions but the applications were rejected by the respondent. The appellants them applied to the High Court for the review of the respondent’s decision and for ancillary relief. The application was dismissed with costs.

On 17 – 18 June 2016 at Bucklands Farm, in the district of Albany, in the course of which a white rhino known as Cambell, belonging to one Ian Steward, was darted with a tranquilizer gun and its horn removed, resulting in the death of the rhino. The police were working on Operation Full Moon as Rhino poaching was rife.

The court held that the appellants were protecting the lives of the cubs and as well as their legal interest in the survical of the cubs as the owners of the very expensive animals.

The applicant sought an order declaring the respondent’s motor vehicle forfeit to the state following his arrest for illegal poaching. The court dismissed the application on the basis that being motion proceedings, the matter had, there being no request for a referral for oral evidence, to be decided on the respondent’s version.

The court considered an appeal against the sentence imposed.

The two Accused had been convicted of unlawfully hunting game. The value of weapons and vehicle used in the commission of the offence exceeded the civil jurisdiction of a Subordinate Court, which accordingly referred the question of forfeiture of these articles to the High Court.

Appellants had been convicted for unlawful hunting upon a plea of guilty before a Subordinate Court. They had hunted 19 springbok and 1 gemsbok without a licence. All pleaded guilty, were convicted and were sentenced to pay fines of varying amounts.

The appellants were represented in the Subordinate Court by an attorney, and according to the record, upon the charge being put to them they and their co-accused all pleaded guilty.

The court had to settle point in laws which were in dispute in this case. On a charge of unlawfully hunting in a Game Reserve it was contended by the Defence that Statutory Instrument No.

The court held that the onus is always on the prosecution to prove the guilt of an accused beyond reasonable doubt. The court held that it is the duty of the trial judicial officer to warn himself of the danger of convicting on the evidence of accomplice witnesses. The court held that the magistrate had failed to make a record of such warning.