Man who organises “hunts” found guilty

Date: 14 August 2015 By: Isabel Venter

A former employee of the South Africa National Parks (SANParks) admitted to selling hunting packages to game hunters for his own gain illegally.

The 33-year-old Michael Simon Sematla appeared in the Louis Trichardt District Court on Thursday, 6 August, where he pleaded guilty to the charges against him. Sematla was arrested on 27 January last year, following an investigation by the specialized unit of SANParks’ Environmental Crime Investigative Unit, otherwise known as the Green Scorpions.

The Scorpions uncovered Sematla’s business when they investigated the cause of death of a giraffe that was discovered inside the Mapungubwe National Park. They followed up the leads and learned that the giraffe had been shot on the open-system park, Den Staat, that borders Mapungubwe. At the time, Sematla was employed as a general worker at Mapungubwe.  

He was charged with 11 counts of fraud due to the fact that he used his official SANParks email address to organise all the “hunting trips”. The Scorpions also discovered that Sematla had drawn in a local hunter of the Alldays area to organise transport permits for the hunters to make the hunt seem more legitimate.

This hunter, plus 12 other hunters, were tracked down by the Scorpions. All of them agreed to be state witnesses against Sematla. They did not, however, come away unscathed from the whole incident. All of them had to pay admission-of-guilt fines. One hunter in particular had to pay a huge fine after he had killed a leopard.

Since none of the hunters had the opportunity to testify, their names are being withheld. They were about to testify when Sematla changed his plea to guilty, which the court accepted. He received a sentence of two years imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years.

In addition, Sematla has to pay R15 000', which will be donated to the anti-poaching fund of SANParks. During the first court appearances of his trial, Sematla faced a disciplinary hearing with SANParks, after which he was dismissed.

In the meantime, Sematla’s brother, Joe Lebala, also appeared in the Louis Trichardt Regional Court last week on charges related to rhino poaching.

Joe stands accused with Job Basi Tlou of Mahlanga in Mpumalanga, Percy Manengna of Alldays and Johannes Podile. Podile and Joe are also residents of Den Staat. The four accused were arrested on 15 August 2014 after a rhino was poached inside the Mapungubwe Park.  They pleaded not guilty to the charges against them and their case will continue on 24 August. All four will remain in custody until then.

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Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

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