A 38-year-old man has been sentenced to nine years in jail after he was convicted of illegal possession of elephant tusk.
The man, identified as Alois Savanhu was arrested with 76,7kg of raw ivory.
Savanhu had initially appeared before Zimbabwe’s Hwange magistrate court’s Livard Philemon, jointly charged with Zimbabwe National Army deserter, Faunel Luphahla (34); Dete villager, Ndaba Ncube (27) and Gwabalanda resident, Innocencia Siwela (42).
After the trial, the magistrate found Luphahla, Ncube and Siwela not guilty and acquitted them. He then ordered Savanhu to be placed on his defence after the State said he had a case to answer.
On Thursday, the court sentenced Savanhu to an effective nine-year jail term.
In convicting him, the magistrate indicated that there was overwhelming evidence proffered in court that he committed the offence.
He said “the State managed to prove its case against the accused and, therefore, the accused is found guilty of the offence as charged”.
The conviction and sentencing is coming about four months after Savanhu’s wife committed suicide over the case. The 38-year-old Christine Mathe hanged herself from the roof truss of her hut using a piece of cloth on February 16, a day after the police interrogated her on the matter.
Mathe had reportedly expressed her fear of going to jail to her children before taking her own life. According to New Zimbabwe News, the deceased was questioned on the whereabouts pf the weapon used by her husband for poaching. Mathe had confessed to police that her husband had sent her a text message over the phone instructing her to give the gun their neighbour Claude Shoko.
The deceased who was freed on agreement that she would work with the police to ensure Shoko was arrested took her own life before the agreement could be honored.
