Let me tell you a tale, of how the Mexican Horse Thief was conned, solidly, by a Rhino Poacher. The story begins in 1983 where I first met Nick van Deventer, the place ;7th South African Infantry Battalion, Phalaborwa, South Africa. I am certain this kind of shit could only happen to me, that is why I write the Chronicles I suppose.
I do not recall the first day I met Nick, it was when those men chosen to be Mortarist joined Oscar Company. I do know that often Nick was the guy that had to be carried, sometimes literally in the harsh training we received. What surprised me was that one day, in all their wisdom the powers that be made him a Lance Corporal. He became insufferable and I avoided him whenever possible. Unfortunately when the Mortar guys got put into Alpha and Bravo Companies, Nick and I were both sent to Alpha.
One day I remember very well, the day we finished up at Lataba Ranch, we had a forced route march back to the camp, carrying full kit. I know as a number two that a 81mm mortar pipe weighs 13kg and each bomb is 2.5kg. I weighed in at an amazing 55kg, so with full kit, if I sat, or fell down, I needed assistance to get on my skinny legs again. The Captain, Fourie, was his name, promised that the first 12 men in would get 5lts of ice-cream and the rest of the day off. I like ice-cream. Nick pulled a ligament in the first few kilometers and road back in the Unimog ambulance.
Due to great tenacity I was in the first 12 back, and got my ice-cream. There I was, lying on my bed, eating my ice-cream and minding my own business, when Nick came up to me. He told me to go and get his kit which had been unloaded on the top parade ground. I told him to fuck off. He then threw a tantrum telling me he is a corporal and I had to obey his direct order. He got the same reply, I was off duty and eating ice-cream. The argument got out of hand and then Nick said some thing that really pissed me off. The sleg soutpiel did not bother me at all, but when he said, in Afrikaans, that my mother was drunk, lying in the gutter and a dog impregnated her, I hit him, once.
It was a good shot, Nick’s nose was squashed so flat no blood came out of it. The blood did go down his throat and he started drowning, medics were part of the support team, and in the same bungalow fortunately. Nick was hauled off to the sickbay and then airlifted to 1 Mil in Pretoria. I was arrested by the MPs and never finished my ice-cream. I spent two days in DB, and it was not that pleasant, getting beaten was not so bad, but having to clean the toilet with my toothbrush was. I was told that I then had to brush my teeth with that same toothbrush. I would not, so it took 4 MPs to do it for me.
It all turned out well, at my court martial I told the Colonel that if he said that about my mom, by God, I would bliksem him as well! I got sent back to my unit. Two weeks later Nick got back from Pretoria and was minus the little stripe he loved so much.
Nick went out of his way to become my friend after that, later we were shipped off to the Border together.
After my National Service I did not hear from him again until the event of Facebook. We became friends on the side and belonged to a few of the same groups.
We then jump to the year 2014, and the next place I saw Nick was at Mabula Game Reserve, where I had been working as the head of the Night Shift APU. How and why that happened is another story….
Part Two
The Mexican Horse Thief and The Rhino Poacher II .
Jump 30 odd years. Having hooked up with Nick on Facebook, he saw that I was leaving the APU at Mabula ( Another story for another time, but me and “rank” do not get on well when they are stupid.)Nick offered me a job in Badplaas with his company. Gypsy that I am, knowing nothing about mechanics, I said “OK!”, and he collected me on my last day of work.
In Badplaas I set up the admin and marketing side of his mechanical workshop. Soon I saw the lies, one was about our past, totally different story about why I broke his nose to his wife and friends. Then a few tall tales about what we were supposed to have done on the Border, uncomfortable to call him a liar so I let them pass. We were Brothers, right? Mostly claiming a bad memory I dodged that issue quite nicely, thank you very much. I hate personal conflict, strange as that sounds, even verbal arguments, and used to go to great lengths to avoid them. The long and short of it was: The workshop was not his, the bakkie he drove was not his, all actually belonged to his wife. I stayed for a while but eventually his wife kicked him out, and since part payment for being his office Johnny was a room at the workshop, I had to move too.
During my time there he spoke about how terrible the rhino poaching was and told me he had some big money coming and we could start our own APU.
Jump another few years and I see on bloody Facebook photos of Nick getting arrested! Caught with a Rhino horn in his vehicle.
I had to block Nick on my messages because of all the new lies he is telling me. An example
“I have read most of the comments about our arrest. Some pretty un-informed crap flying about. Soon a great many faces will be extremely red. Anyway,will keep you posted from time to time. Cheer up mate,things could be worse! Funny how quick people are to believe the bad stories,and how people add shit to the truth! I was NOT arrest in posession of anything illegal,and THAT is the holy truth! Why do you think that we have not had our day in court? Why is the case being dragged for such a long time? THERE IS NO EVIDENCE,BOET!!!! There,s a helluva lot more to this whole”
Soon after that I blocked Nick, no idea where he is now.
The worst part is that he was already a Rhino Poacher when he picked me up at Mabula!
“Two of the notorious van Deventer brothers have been arrested again for rhino poaching. Their latest run-in with the law comes a decade after the pair were first charged in connection with the “Boere rhino mafia.”
Afrikaners Deon and Nick van Deventer, aged 48 and 51, were arrested together with a Zimbabwean national Onward Muchangowa. The trio were caught by the South African authorities in Limpopo. Realising they were being tailed by police, they allegedly attempted to jettison a rhino horn they were carrying from their vehicle by throwing it out of the window. The authorities retrieved the horn and arrested the brothers and their accomplice.
The Deventer brothers first came to attention in 2007, after being caught in the act in Kwa-Zulu Natal’s Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park. From September 2006 to July 2007, the pair were alleged to have shot 19 rhinos in Kruger National Park, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, and various private game reserves in South Africa. The rhinos slaughtered with guns and bows and arrows included young calves. The pair were subsequently charged with illegally trading rhino horn and the illegal possession of firearms. They entered into a plea bargain in exchange for information on who was running the “Boere rhino mafia” syndicate, and even shared their story with the press before changing their minds; citing threats that had apparently been made against their family.
Ten years ago, when the van Deventer brothers were first arrested, Africa’s resurgent rhino poaching crisis had just begun. During the following years, it became apparent that one driver for this rise was that the changes in trophy hunting regulation in South Africa had allowed pseudo-hunters to obtain hunting permits for criminals, who then leaked rhino horn onto the black market in Asia, particularly Viet Nam, where demand was sky-rocketing. High-level, Afrikaans-speaking gangs were involved in this trade as bogus safari operators. Charges brought against the van Deventers’ alleged “Boere rhino mafia” included racketeering, money laundering and theft, alongside wildlife crimes. But when the brothers reneged on their deal with the authorities, the case against the criminals higher up the chain collapsed.
South Africa subsequently tightened trophy hunting legislation after a report by the CITES Rhino Working Group estimated that approximately one-fifth of illegally traded rhino horn leaving Africa was harvested from “pseudo hunts.” Today, trophy hunting for rhinos in South Africa is tightly controlled and the number of rhino killed through legal hunts represents a fraction of the number slaughtered by illegal poachers. Other so-called “khaki collar” alleged criminals the top of the chain in South Africa include Dawie Groenewald and Hugo Ras. Both trials have been postponed on multiple occasions – in the case of Groenewald, delays have dragged on for six years despite the USA indicting him for wildlife crimes as part of Operation Crash.
Back in 2011, TRAFFIC’s Tom Milliken warned that the judicial focus in South Africa was too often on the poachers and couriers, and not the organisers and facilitators higher up the chain. Milliken said: “the proof in the pudding will be if those South African game-industry white guys who are involved in rhino crime get similar sentences.” The van Deventer brothers currently remain in police custody and are due to appear in court on January 27 to make formal applications for bail. No bail and a prompt trial would go some way to deterring others, and helping police disrupt the wider criminal networks on which the rhino horn trade depends. This time, let’s hope they aren’t released only to reoffend.”
26 Jan 2017
By: Save the Rhino
Tags: Mexican Horse Thief, psycology, Rhino poaching, Wayne Bisset
From a Different Angle 
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