ROVING REPORTERS: Rhino DNA and cartridge cases — the evidence that nailed Kruger Park ranger Landela

When field ranger Hanyi Samuel Ndlovu received a radio instruction to block a white Hilux bakkie speeding away from a shooting scene, he positioned his SANParks vehicle across the four-way junction at the Majekejeni firebreak, about 300m from where the gunshots had been reported.

He took cover behind a tree, his firearm cocked and ready. When the bakkie stopped, he stepped out and ordered the occupants out at gunpoint.

To his surprise, the passenger who alighted was his supervisor, regional ranger Rodney Landela. What followed astonished Ndlovu. Landela ordered the driver, state veterinary technician Kenneth Muchocho, to drive off to find cellphone reception to alert area manager Mbongeni Tukela about the reported gunshots in Block 37 of Kruger National Park’s Kingfisherspruit section.

As Muchocho sped off, Ndlovu told Landela that cellphone signal and clear radio communication were available where they stood. After a brief argument, Landela insisted that he, too, needed to drive off to find reception so he could speak privately to Tukela rather than over the open park radio channel. He said he needed to request armed backup, including a helicopter and additional field rangers.

Landela then climbed into Ndlovu’s SANParks vehicle, turned down the vehicle radio and instructed Ndlovu to drive off towards the S106 junction.

High stakes

And so began a high-stakes game of deception in the bush that later ended with Landela and Muchocho arrested and charged with killing a white rhino and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.

The subsequent 10-year prosecution hinged not on ranger against ranger, but on forensic evidence: rhino DNA detected on Landela’s boots and clothing, spent cartridge cases, vehicle-tracking data and a state-issued rifle and bloodstained axe recovered alongside a severed rhino horn at a hidden stash site in the bush.

On Friday, both men were sentenced to 10 years’ imprisonment for killing the rhino. Handing down the sentence in the Skukuza Regional Court, regional magistrate MJ Ngobeni said they had betrayed the trust placed in them to protect South Africa’s wildlife and uphold the law as state employees in Kruger National Park. He likened their actions to “a dog biting its owner”.

What made Landela’s case extraordinary was his career trajectory. Having joined SANParks in 2001 as a general worker, he had built an exemplary 15-year career, rising through the ranks to become the regional ranger responsible for the Marula North area. 

High esteem

Based at Satara Rest Camp, where he kept his official office and firearm safe, he oversaw vast operational sections of the park, participated in planning sessions where ranger deployments were decided and held official custody of state firearms in his region. Shortly before his arrest, he had even been nominated for an executive committee position with the Game Rangers Association of Africa.

In court, senior colleagues testified to the high esteem in which Landela had been held. Dr Xolani Funda, SANParks’ general manager for area integrity management, testified that Landela was widely regarded as the “crown prince” of the ranger corps – a man Funda personally hoped would one day become chief ranger of Kruger National Park.

When Landela took the stand in his own defence, he offered a wild dog cover story and maintained that he and Muchocho had been framed.

The defence

He testified that on the morning of their arrest, 27 July 2016, he and Muchocho were on a wildlife observation mission scouting for a pack of wild dogs suspected of canine distemper. He said he had locked his state-issued .375 rifle, backpack, spent cartridges and axe in his safe at his Satara office the previous evening, telling the court he was “still surprised to this day” how they ended up concealed under a bush near the crime scene.

To explain the rhino DNA found on his boots and clothing, Landela claimed he had touched the carcass of the rhino found near where the Hilux had first been spotted that morning.

He testified that he had joined a team that walked to the freshly killed white rhino. Observing a cut where meat had been carved from the rhino’s shoulder, Landela said he physically lifted a flap of skin to inspect inside. He explained that poachers often insert poison (such as agricultural pesticides) into shoulder meat so scavenging vultures die immediately upon feeding, preventing circling birds from alerting rangers to fresh kill sites.

To account for the rhino DNA detected on his green jumpsuit and boots, Landela conceded, “I can’t deny that bits of blood from the rhino touched me.” He added that blood was pooled on the ground leading to the carcass, and that his clothing had brushed against bloodied vegetation and tree branches.

However, State witnesses – Detective Matuludi Selatole, Senior Investigator Kenneth Maggs and Kobus de Wet – contradicted his account. They testified that Landela and Muchocho were already suspects under guard and had never been permitted near the carcass.

The defence called no witnesses to support the men’s claim that they had been framed.

In cross-examination, the prosecutor, advocate Lot Mgiba, argued that for Landela’s account to be true, an unknown person would have had to enter his locked office and safe at Satara, take his service rifle, backpack, spent cartridges and tools, shoot and dehorn a white rhino in Block 37, and place those items under a bush along the S106 where Landela and Muchocho happened to be driving that morning.

Ngiba also noted that on 26 July 2016, a duty roster sent to Landela showed that most field rangers from Kingfisherspruit would be off duty for month-end payday, leaving only three behind. The initial patrol plan excluded Block 37. However, recalling that a rhino had been poached there during the previous month-end period, the rangers decided that evening to change their plan and patrol Block 37 the following morning.

Because this change was made after the patrol notification had been sent to Landela, he was unaware that rangers would be in the area.

The evidence 

Ngiba further pointed to vehicle-tracking GPS data showing that Muchocho’s Hilux had remained stationary in Block 37, near the rhino kill site, for more than 25 minutes before patrol leader Selby Magopane reported the gunshots.

GPS evidence was only a small part of the State’s case. Shortly after hearing gunshots in Block 37, Magopane reported seeing two men fleeing towards a white Hilux – one dressed in a green ranger uniform, the other in khaki – before the vehicle sped away.

Magopane was on foot in Block 37 with ranger Dennis Nzima. He immediately instructed a field ranger, Samuel Ndlovu, to block the nearby four-way junction at the Majekejeni firebreak.

Soon afterwards, Ndlovu radioed Magopane to report that Landela was with him. Magopane asked Ndlovu to have Landela drive over and fetch them. But Ndlovu explained that Landela had no vehicle: Muchocho had just driven off in the Hilux to look for cellphone reception.

Magopane’s instruction was immediate: “Follow that bakkie because that is the vehicle we saw.”

Meanwhile, acting sectional ranger Corporal Lucky Ndlovu was speeding towards the T-junction of the S106 and Phelwana firebreak in his SANParks vehicle. There, he encountered Samuel Ndlovu, who gestured that Muchocho’s white Hilux had taken the S106 eastwards. Landela motioned for Corporal Ndlovu to stop, but he ignored his supervisor’s signal and accelerated in pursuit.

Further along the S106, Corporal Ndlovu spotted Muchocho’s bakkie attempting a sudden U-turn. He intercepted the vehicle and questioned Muchocho, who said Landela had sent him to find cellphone reception to call Tukela. Ndlovu instructed him to turn around and follow him back towards the scene.

After the rhino carcass was discovered and investigators arrived, Corporal Ndlovu accompanied Maggs, Selatole and dog master Captain Ivan Swart back to the stretch of road where Muchocho had attempted the U-turn.

The stash

On the loose soil beside the road, they found fresh wheel-spin marks where the Hilux had turned into the bush and accelerated back onto the S106. Following flat-soled shoe imprints into the dense vegetation, the team walked about 20m into the veld.

Beneath a shaded thorn bush, concealed from plain sight, lay a rifle bag containing Landela’s state-issued .375 CZ 550 Magnum bolt-action hunting rifle, and a backpack containing a freshly severed white rhino horn wrapped in black plastic, three spent .375 cartridge cases, a bloodstained axe, a panga, a knife and a pocketbook marked “Meeting 2016”.

The discovery brought together several strands of evidence presented by the State: the rifle and cartridge cases, the rhino DNA detected on Landela’s boots, and the vehicle-tracking evidence that challenged the men’s account of their movements.

A decade after the rhino was killed, the case has ended with both men sentenced to 10 years in prison.

SANParks welcomed the sentences, saying the court had recognised the gravity of the crime, including the misuse of an official, state-issued firearm and the deliberate nature of the offence.

“The sentence sends a strong message that rhino poaching and the betrayal of public trust by conservation officials will not be tolerated, and that those who undermine efforts to protect the country’s natural heritage will face serious consequences,” said SANParks spokesperson JP Louw. DM

This story is part of an in-depth Roving Reporters case study on the State vs Rodney Landela and Kenneth Muchocho trial, developed with support from the Yazi Centre for Science and Society and the Resilience Fund run by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.