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Court Reporter
BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese yesterday dismissed an appeal against refusal of bail by three members of the alleged poaching syndicate that has been allegedly using cyanide to kill elephants at the Hwange National Park.Justice Makonese said the trio was a flight risk.

He said the magistrate had not erred because the trio was facing custodial sentences once convicted and as such were likely to abscond.
He said there was no misdirection on the part of the magistrate and as such the appeal against the refusal of bail had no merit.

A Bulawayo businessman Farai Chitsa (34), two brothers Sipho (54), and Misheck (46) Mafu had been denied bail by Tsholotsho resident magistrate Mr Carrington Karidzangundi on their initial appearance last month.

They appealed to the High Court through their lawyer, Mr Liberty Mcijo, of Mcijo, Dube and Partners, arguing that the magistrate misdirected himself by saying they were a flight risk.

The trio’s grounds of appeal were that the seriousness of the offence is not sufficient ground to deny them bail pending trial, saying they have been cooperating despite being assaulted by officials from the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority of Zimbabwe.

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

The three will next appear at the Hwange regional court on 14 October for trial. 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 95 jumbos.

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 noticed footprints of poachers on 29 August and tracked them 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.

The court was told that Sipho, his brother Misheck and Chitsa allegedly targeted pools frequented by elephants at the national park and poisoned the water.

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.

The two were remanded in custody to Tuesday on the particular case. On Wednesday, 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 Section 137(1)(g)(2) of the EMA Act, Chapter 20:27, which prohibits storage of hazardous substances at unlicensed premises.

Ncube (30) of Number 11 Frederick Booth Road, Hillside in Harare, is out of custody to 16 October 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 and contravening sections of the EMA Act.

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.