HWANGE: A magistrate here has sentenced
Banda (35) and a key player for Hwange in the yesteryears, had pleaded not guilty to contravening the Parks and Wildlife Act, which criminalises acquiring, possessing, or transferring unregistered raw ivory without a permit.
However, Magistrate
Banda who was also employed by
Rangers had received a tip-off that Banda was carrying a bag with eight tusks in Hwange's Makwika village.
Rangers and the police proceeded to the area and found Banda sitting at a bus stop with the bag as he was believed to be waiting for a buyer.
Prosecutor
"On 24 May Zimparks rangers received information that there was a person with a bag containing ivory in Makwika in Hwange. They teamed up with police and proceeded to the area where they found him sitting alone on the bus stop bench with a blue bag on his laps," said the prosecutor.
He said police and rangers requested to search the bag and inside were eight tusks weighing 9kg.
Banda was arrested when he failed to produce a permit.
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