Theft of R9 million rhino horns: R5,000 bail for Parks and Tourism Board official linked to grand looting
|Published
An employee of the North West Parks and Tourism Board was released on bail in the Mmabatho Magistrate’s Court in connection with the theft of 51 rhino horns.
Edwin Thapelo Rangaka was released on R5,000 bail and his matter was postponed to July 24, according to Lieutenant Colonel Tinyiko Mathebula, provincial spokesperson for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, also known as the Hawks.
Mathebula said the 48-year-old man faces charges of business burglary.
Rangaka was arrested on Wednesday for his alleged involvement in the theft.
“He was arrested at his workplace following an investigation that linked him to a business burglary at the North West Parks and Tourism Board on June 26, 2023, where 51 rhino horns were allegedly stolen,” said Mathebula.
“His accomplices, Elias Mangande and Lefa Mankgaba, were arrested last year in July.”
Mankgaba was out on bail, while Mangande was still in custody.
North West provincial head of the Hawks, Major General Patrick Mbotho has welcomed the arrests.
Mbotho has commended the “sterling investigative work” done by the Hawks' serious organised crime investigation unit which arrested the 48-year-old man.
Last year, IOL reported that Mankgaba had been arrested in connection with the theft of 51 rhino horn, worth R9 million.
The rhino horns were stolen from a vault at the premises of the North West Parks and Tourism Board in Mahikeng.
The arrest of Mankgaba comes after the Hawks previously stated that in the early hours of June 26, 2023, burglars broke into the facility, evading all the security in place, and located vault keys, which they used to enter the vault.
The burglars used the keys to gain access to the rhino horn stockpile and vanished with 51 rhino horns worth R9 million.
IOL