Three men were arrested in Ventersburg, in the Free State, on Thursday for possession of ivory, said police.
The crafted ivory items were found wrapped in newspapers in a car searched at a filling station on the N1, Sergeant Tlalanyane Pakela said.
Also seized were five Nokia and Samsung cellphones and United States dollars found in the car.
The Toyota Verso, with a Western Cape registration number, had fitted the description of a vehicle given to police investigating possible illegal goods.
One of the occupants, a Zimbabwean man, told them he was travelling to the Western Cape from Zimbabwe with two friends. Two Chinese men then arrived and said they owned the vehicle. On the way to the police station one of the men offered a policeman R900, said Pakela.
He said the men, aged between 25 and 39, had been arrested and would appear in the Ventersburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday. - Sapa