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Court Reporter
THE trial of a Bulawayo businessman and two brothers from Tsholotsho who are members of the alleged poaching syndicate that has been allegedly using cyanide to kill elephants at the Hwange National Park failed to start at the Hwange regional court yesterday.Court officials in Hwange said Farai Chitsa (34), Sipho Mafu (54), and Misheck Mafu (46) are remanded at Khami Remand Prison and have not been transferred to Hwange for start of trial.

The trio, which had its application for bail dismissed recently by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese on the grounds that they were a flight risk, were yesterday remanded in absentia to Monday next week.

On that day, their lawyer, Mr Dumisani Dube of Cheda and Partners is expected to make an application for the matter to be transferred to Bulawayo.

Chitsa, of House Number 6297 Old Pumula, Sipho of Sakhile Line and Misheck of Thula Line in Tsholotsho are being charged with contravening a section of the Parks and Wildlife Act and that of the Environmental Management Agency Act.

Allegations are that on 27 August this year, game rangers at Hwange National Park got a tip-off that there were poachers in the game park and a team was dispatched to investigate.

The court was told that the team tracked footprints to Sipho’s homestead, who allegedly admitted to killing five elephants and led the police to where he had hidden the tusks.

Sipho implicated his brother Misheck, who upon arrest the following day implicated Chitsa. The court was told that investigators told Misheck to phone Chitsa, who was in Bulawayo on the pretext that he wanted to sell him some tusks, and Chitsa drove from Bulawayo to Pelandaba in Tsholotsho where he was ambushed and arrested by rangers at about 2am.

The three allegedly targeted pools frequented by elephants at the national park and it is alleged that Chitsa paid the two brothers $900 to poison water sources with salt laced with cyanide, which has resulted in the death of 103 jumbos.

Another member of the syndicate, Clever Khumalo (44) who recently appeared in court for delivering, or offering toxic substances and also illegally possessing ivory in connivance with Sipho, told the court that they had been operating for the past five years.

A human resources manager for Servcor Zimbabwe Private Limited in Harare, Elvis Ncube appeared in court for allegedly supplying sodium cyanide to the poaching syndicate.

He was charged with contravening a Section of the EMA Act  which prohibits storage of hazardous substances at unlicensed premises.
Ncube (30) of Number 11 Frederick Booth Road, Hillside in Harare, was remanded out of custody to tomorrow on $100 bail.

Three of the poachers – Robert Maposa (42), Thabani Zondo (24) and Dedani Tshuma (25) were recently sentenced to 16 years in prison each for illegal possession of ivory.

Maposa and Zondo were further ordered to pay $600 000 restitution to the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority by 31 December 2013  and Tshuma was also ordered to pay $200 000 restitution by the same date.