“Unfortunately our Golf Day had to be postponed due to the new Covid regulations. We will give a new date as soon as we get the go-ahead,” said Jolene Coetzee from Protrack Rhino Task Team.
The Golf Day was a first of its kind and was scheduled to take place on Saturday, July 3 at the Drakensig Golf Course.
A table for four company representatives was going for R3000, those who wished to set up a gazebo would pay R1000 extra to sponsor a T or a Green. It was going to be a 4 Ball American Scramble – Shotgun Start. Attendees would also be entered into a lucky draw and a prize-giving was on the cards at the end of the day.
Tickets for the lucky draw were being sold for R20 a ticket. All funds raised were going towards Protrack Rhino Task Team’s Nonprofit Organisation (NPO) to help protect the rhinos in the area. Coetzee said the Protrack Rhino Task Team is dedicated to preventing rhino poaching. It was established by Vincent Barkas in 2013 founder of Protrack AntiPoaching Unit (Since 1992).
Coetzee said in 2007 Protrack Anti Poaching Unit lost their first rhino and this left the company, the reserves and the community devastated.
“We all knew this was the beginning of the end for our rhinos. Vincent saw that being behind the fence lines on the reserves was not enough to win this war.
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“Protrack took guys off different reserves to patrol the roads, they used a previous SAPS detective to gather vital information about the poachers and in the first two weeks, the team made their first arrest. It wasn’t long before Protrack was unable to afford to pay for the team.
“We asked for help but no one in our community was able to pay out more money for security,” she said.
Coetzee said the only way was to use donations from companies to keep the team operational.
“Protrack Rhino Task Team and Intel division use donations alone and are NPO and PBO registered. The Protrack Rhino Task Team is a specialised tactical team, created to complete special operations and use the information given directly from the poachers to make arrests,” she said.
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