Anton Ras in court on Wednesday. (Photo: Isabel/ Venter)
Two brothers who run a taxidermy business testified in the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday about the rhino horns that the state says never reached the business in the case against Anton Ras.
The 47-year-old Anton is the brother of the controversial Hugo Ras, the alleged mastermind behind a large-scale rhino poaching syndicate. Hugo is currently in custody with his trial expected to begin later this year.
Petrus Johannes and John Louis Kemp, the two brothers who run Big Buck Taxidermy in Pretoria, testified that they never received the horns of a white rhino that the state claims Anton hunted in 2010.
Earlier, the court heard that Anton, in his capacity as a professional hunter, would have helped with the hunting of the rhinoceros on 13 February 2010 on the farm Copperfield in Potchefstroom, North West. The state argues that instead of taking the horns directly to a taxidermy, the horns were taken to Hugo in Pretoria illegally and without the necessary permits.
On the day in question, the state argues, Anton was the professional hunter who took out and assisted a client, Pieter van Wyk, during the shooting of the rhino.
All two brothers testified that on February 16, three days after the hunt, they only received part of the skin, three legs and a tail, according to their records. At that stage, their company had been doing business with Hugo, who was then a professional hunter and organized hunting trips while running his own hunting company, Ras Safaris, for almost four years.
“Hugo was a professional hunter and brought many trophies to our company with his name registered as the facilitator of hunts… we often did business with him and he therefore had a file with us,” testified Petrus.
According to Petrus and John, the portions of the trophies arrived piece by piece. Van Wyk, according to Petrus’ testimony, is the one who arrived there with parts of the skin, legs and tail. The instructions were apparently to stuff the head of the animal and make containers for the legs.
The skin that covered the rhino’s skull and neck was at Hugo’s house in Pretoria. According to Petrus, he received a call from Anton to collect this part of the trophy from Hugo’s residence in Montana in the north of Pretoria.
Both confirmed the horns were not handed over. Both brothers testified that they inquired about it and were informed by Hugo “it is in the process of getting a microchip”.
“If I remember correctly, Hugo Ras told me that the horns had been received, but that they still needed to get a microchip. I did not receive the horns or see them,” Petrus testified.
Later they were told by Van Wyk to continue to finish the trophy without making an impression of the original horns. According to the brothers, it is the custom to never put the original horns on a trophy, but to make impressions. Van Wyk later agreed that the brothers could use any impression of another horn that they had at their disposal.
Adv. Tokkie van Zyl, for Anton, said during the brothers’ cross-examination that Anton’s version will be that he was “never involved in the arrangements or negotiations as far as the trophy is concerned”. Van Zyl also added that the specific arrangement was that Hugo would take the trophy to the brothers and that it would specifically be equipped with an imprint of another horn.
“The accused (Anton) will also testify that he cannot specifically remember whether you were at Hugo’s house at all or more specifically the date or time, but then again it is a case of him disputing that you were there, it’s just that he cannot specifically remember because of the long period of time that has passed until now,” argued Van Zyl.
Petrus testified to this that it was untrue because he was personally called by Anton to collect the skin.
Shortly after this, Hugo’s brothers learned that his home had been broken into and the horns had been stolen.
Const. Bernet Masenya, then attached to the Sinoville police station’s detective branch, testified that Hugo reported the case on March 3 or 4. He visited the scene on March 7 and testified that Hugo never reported that any rhino horns were stolen.
“He also told me that he had in the meantime fixed the door, where it had been broken into, because the police took too long to investigate. It was suspicious, because one has to replace the whole door and it didn’t seem to me that he had replaced the whole door,” testified Masenya.
He also added that no one has ever been arrested for this case.
The interrogation continues.