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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
A CIVIL Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) engineer and a villager from Lupinyu outside Victoria Falls have been arrested after being found in possession of two elephant tusks.

Homes Ngwenya (32) who resides at house number 2226 Mucheke in Masvingo where he is stationed at the CAAZ offices and Cephas Moyo (36) of Chidobe 4 under Chief Mvuthu appeared before Victoria resident magistrate Ms Lindiwe Maphosa charged with acquiring or transferring raw ivory without a permit.

The two accused persons who are being represented by Mr Thulani Nkala of Dube, Nkala and Company pleaded not guilty to the charge.They were remanded in custody to December 24 for judgment.

In defence, Ngwenya and Moyo claimed they were being wrongfully implicated.

Ngwenya said he received a call from a man identified as Ncube who wanted to sell him ivory and he drove from Masvingo to meet him in Victoria Falls.

Ngwenya said police pounced on him when he was talking to Ncube outside a car on the roadside near the airport.He claimed that he had never met his co-accused Moyo who was in the company of Ncube on the night of arrest.

Moyo told the court that police pounced on him and assaulted him and he fled from the scene thinking that they wanted to kidnap him.Prosecuting, Mrs Sithabile Daka-Mungombe said the two accused were cornered by an anti-poaching team comprising police and rangers from Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority while attempting to sell the two tusks near the Victoria Falls International Airport.

“On November 13, 2018 around 8PM detectives received information that the two were in possession of raw ivory near the Victoria Falls Airport. The detectives and rangers proceeded to the place and laid ambush near the airport turn,” said the prosecutor.

She said two members of the anti-poaching team waited by the road side and pretended to be buyers while the others stood guard in the cover of darkness.

Ngwenya and Moyo allegedly arrived at the scene driving a vehicle and met the anti-poaching team.

The tusks were in a sack on a seat.After being shown the tusks, detectives then identified themselves as police officers and demanded to see a permit authorising the duo to deal in ivory. Ngwenya and Moyo were arrested after they failed to produce the required documents.

The ivory weighed a combined 9kg and valued at $2 227. — @ncubeleon.