Safari operator in the dock for poaching again

A SAFARI operator based in Hwagwe, Headman Sibanda who allegedly conspired and helped in the killing of a collared lion soon after the slaying of Cecil the Lion, which caused global outrage last year, was on Thursday arrested for illegal hunting including maiming a special protected animal species.

On Friday, Sibanda was dragged to the courts after hours and appeared before Hwange resident magistrate Ms Rose Dube facing charges of poaching. He was remanded in custody to tomorrow.

The State was being represented by prosecutor, Mr Onias Nyathi while Sibanda was being represented by lawyer Mr Sikhumbuzo Nyathi. According to police details privy to the case, Sibanda is alleged to have conducted illegal hunts at his Railway Farm 31 over the last two weeks.

Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority withdrew the farm’s permit after he illegally killed a lion at his farm near where the famous Cecil was slain. Sibanda was in the news weeks after the killing of Cecil the Lion after he was arrested for helping another American doctor, Jan Seski to kill an unidentified lion in April last year.

Dr Seski — a gynaecological oncologist and surgeon and a member of the Alaska Bow Hunting Society — has been pictured online with a series of dead animals including elephants, hippos, zebras, ostriches, and water buffalo. Sibanda, a former parks warden also allegedly has an invalid professional license after it was revoked in 2014 following his conviction of poaching a kudu in Lupane.

It is alleged on 17 October Sibanda killed a sable and followed that by shooting down a zebra on 19 October. He went on to gun down an elephant on 22 October and a Roan Antelope three days later. A Roan Antelope is one of the endangered and protected animal species which attracts a mandatory sentence of nine years if one is convicted of poaching it.

“Sibanda was arrested at a roadblock in Lupane and was found in position of a pair of elephant tusks. This was after he had evaded arrest at his farm while in the company of his client. The client was arrested while on his way to catch a flight in Victoria Falls,” claimed the source.

His Czech Republic client, Ladis-Lave Nemec was released after being interviewed and cleared by the border control and the ZRP Minerals Unit based at Dete station, in the process delaying the takeoff of the Harare bound plane at the Victoria Falls Airport by over 30 minutes.

The Parks and Wildlife Act of 2014 section 66 exonerates the client as a visitor who would be under the supervision of a professional hunter. Gwayi Intensive Conservation Area chairman Mr Mark Russell said illegal hunting “was not in the interest of conservation and a sad development”.

“Illegal hunting is not good, it will not only impact negatively to the Gwayi Intensive Conservation Area but the country as a whole as well as the Southern African Development Community region because we have combined efforts with our neighbours when it comes to conservation issues. Issues of illegal hunting shouldn’t be taken lightly . . . We don’t condone it and the law will have to take its course,” he said.