SANParks plans to lob grenades at rhino poachers

The war against rhino poachers in the Kruger National Park is intensifying – grenade launchers are now part of the South African National Parks’ armoury.

A weapons design and manufacturing company handed over a 40mm under barrel grenade launcher (UBGL) in Pretoria on Friday. Milkor’s chief executive‚ Marius Roos‚ said this would enable field rangers to handle different situations with different types of ammunition.

"We have identified ourselves as concerned citizens of South Africa and that we need to do something for rhino poaching. We know the problem for the last few years and we therefore approached SANParks‚" said Roos.

"The solution that we offer today is a UBGL‚ which will complement the main weapon system … SANParks will be able to deploy these weapon systems as part of rangers’ arsenal of weapons to combat poaching activities nationally‚" he said while demonstrating how it functions.

The grenade launcher consists of diverse less-lethal and lethal applications such as “flash bangs”‚ flares‚ smoke and rubber bullets. Roos did not say how many units were given to SANParks.

SANParks is the custodian of the largest population of rhinos in the world and the majority of them are in Kruger Park.

William Mabasa‚ SANParks’ acting head of communications‚ said the number of rhino poachers was increasing daily.

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"So we cannot stop trying to bring in whatever that can help us to deal with the problem because‚ at the end of the day‚ this is a problem that we‚ eventually‚ must win‚” he said. “We cannot allow criminals to win this war and wipe out our rhinos in the country. This is the national heritage of this country; it belongs to us."

Mabasa called on other companies to join the fight to prevent poachers from killing more rhinos.

A few rhino facts

• More than 5 000 rhinos have been poached over the past eight years.
   
• 363 rhinos have been poached this year alone.
   
• 232 have been poached in Kruger Park‚ 50 in KwaZulu-Natal‚ 30 in Limpopo‚ 15 in North West‚ 14 in Mpumalanga‚ 13 in Eastern Cape‚ five in the Northern Cape and three in the Free State.
   
• Between April 2015 and March this year‚ 49 cases of rhino poaching involving 103 accused have been finalised; 80 of these accused were convicted‚ resulting in a conviction rate of 78%.

- TMG Digital