Zimpapers Logo

Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
THE trial of a Gwayi safari farm operator accused of conniving with an American doctor to illegally kill a lion in June this year was yesterday postponed to October after the State said it was not yet ready to prosecute. The illegal hunt follows the slaying of Cecil the Lion by American dentist Walter Palmer under similar circumstances.

Headman Sibanda, 55, from Selborne Park in Bulawayo, is the managing director of Nyala Safaris in Gwayi area and also owns Railway Farm 31, where the lion was killed by an American doctor, Jan Casimir Sieski.

Sibanda is charged with permitting a person who is not a resident of Zimbabwe to hunt on any land following the shooting of the lion on his farm in June.

He also faces an alternative charge of failing to prevent an illegal hunt, which led to killing of the lion in violation of the Parks and Wildlife Act as read with Section 4 (b) of Statutory Instrument 26 of 1998.

Hwange magistrate Portia Mhlanga deferred start of trial to October 2.

“The State is seeking a postponement because we are not yet ready for trial on the matter,” said prosecutor Fadzai Mharadze, as she applied for a postponement.

Sibanda was accompanied by his lawyer Tonderai Mukuku of Mukuku, Marondedze and Partners when he briefly appeared in court yesterday.

He has not been asked to plead and is out of custody on $300 bail. The court ordered Sibanda to report twice a week at Hillside Police Station in Bulawayo, reside at his Selborne Park address, to surrender his passport and not to interfere with witnesses as part of bail conditions.

Allegations by the State are that Sibanda, a professional hunter, connived with Sieski to kill a lion between June 22 and July 2 this year when he did not have a quota for hunting lions.

He allegedly contracted a Kariba-based professional hunter, John Zvinashe, who illegally hunted the lion with Sieski.

Sieski, 68, is a medical doctor from Murraysville, Pennsylvania, where he is a member of the Alaska Bow Hunting Society.

The State alleges that Sieski used a bow and arrow in the same way used by Palmer to kill Cecil the Lion.

The lion was valued at $20, 000.