File
Two brothers have finally been jailed after pleading guilty to numerous charges of rhino poaching.
The National Prosecuting Authority said 56-year-old Nicholas van Deventer was sentenced to 15 years of direct imprisonment while his 53-year-old brother, Gideon, was sentenced to an effective 10 years behind bars in the Giyani Magistrate's Court.
They were arrested in 2017 and have been in custody since.
NPA provincial spokesperson, Mashudu Malabi-Dzhangi, said the two pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to hunt rhinos, illegal hunting, killing and de-horning a rhino bull, possession of rhino horns, selling rhino horns, trespassing, and the possession of a loaded firearm.
The offences were committed between December 2016 and January 2017.
The court also heard that the brothers made headlines in KwaZulu Natal a decade ago when they were also caught for poaching rhinos in the Hluhluwe-Umfolozi Park and again in Bela Bela for the possession of rhino horns.
The NPA said it welcomed the sentences.
