Poacher jailed for R1m cycad haul
A cycad poacher who stole more than R1m worth of endangered cycads from farms across the Eastern Cape has been sentenced to eight years in jail.
On Tuesday, Sam Homela, 36, was sentenced to a R100,000 fine or three years’ imprisonment and a further eight years direct imprisonment for being involved in five cycad-related poaching in the province between January 2015 and March 2016.
This after he pleaded guilty. Environmental officials have revealed that this specific rare and endangered cycad, which is only found in certain parts of the Eastern Cape, was sought after by botanists across the world.
Homela was convicted in the Port Elizabeth Regional Court on Tuesday on five charges of theft and five of violating the Nature Conservation Ordinance.
Department of environmental affairs’ Green Scorpions investigator Etienne Kitching, who was the lead detective in the case, said that in some of these cases, the cycads were recovered before Homela could cart them away.
“In these five cases, evidence gathered on the scene at the farms connected us to Homela.
“The evidence was overwhelming.”
Kitching said months of investigation led him to eventually tracking Homela down in 2016.
“There were several cycads dug up on farms around the Jansenville and Wolwefontein areas between 2015 and 2016.
“The plants were strategically placed on the side of the road for collection, mostly in the dark of night. In some cases, we tried to intercept Homela during the pick-up of the cycads but on each occasion he evaded arrest – even abandoning his bakkie and trailer in one instance.”
Kitching said in one incident, 36 cycads had been uprooted on a farm and recovered before Homela could get them.
“In all these cases, evidence connected him to the crime scenes even though he failed to actually collect the cycads.
“Due to the evidence, he was charged with uprooting them as well.”
In total, all five cases saw about 90 cycads uprooted – with a total street value of more than R1m.
“Even though we retrieved some of these cycads, most of them died.
“So at the end of the day, the environment suffers,” he said.
He said poachers targeted the Eastern Cape as this specific cycad was in demand overseas.
“The cycad is eventually smuggled out of the country or in some cases sold in another province.
“The going price is about R400, or more, per centimetre. It is a very lucrative trade and we are working around the clock to clamp down on these syndicates,” he said.
“A medium to large cycad is possibly hundreds of years old, which is part of the reason why they are widely sought – it is for status.”
By 2016, Homela had racked up similar convictions linked to cycad poaching totaling about R500,000, mostly in the Steytlerville and Graaff-Reinet regions.
Authorities suspect that Homela, who at the time was believed to be running an international cycad smuggling ring, was selling rare cycads to overseas buyers.
Specialist environmental prosecutor advocate Buks Coetzee said between 2015 and 2016, when the crimes were committed, Homela was out on bail for Graaff-Reinet cycad poaching incidents totaling about R300,000.
“This led to a warrant of arrest being issued and he was eventually convicted in the Graaff-Reinet case.”
In another case, Homela was accused of working with Jansenville farmer and convicted cycad poacher Robert Biggs – who was sentenced to a R50,000 fine, half of which was suspended.
Coetzee said that since 2016, Homela had been in custody.
“I can say that we have had no major cycad-related incidents since he has been in jail.
“For us this is an indication of a network that has ultimately been dismantled,” he said.
“This sentencing is very good and we hope that it serves as a deterrent to other would-be poachers.
“We need to clamp down on this poaching before it gets worse.
“We have plans in place which involve working with farmers and other role-players to nab such syndicates,” he said.
In January 2008, 103 extremely rare cycads valued at about R10m were stolen from the Lilly Cycad Reserve inside the Selati nature reserve in Limpopo.
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