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A BULAWAYO woman told the court yesterday that she lied to her husband that she wanted to visit her ill sister in Kwekwe when she was allegedly hired by the poaching syndicate to carry ivory for sale in Harare.
Mrs Anna Moyo of Number 16734 Millas Road, Romney Park was invited by the State to testify as a witness together with Mrs Gene Mvereche.
The two are said to be members of the gang that would administer cyanide on watering points for elephants in Hwange National Park thereby killing more than 100 jumbos.
In her testimony, Mrs Moyo said she was not aware of what Clever Khumalo and other members loaded into her car.
The car was later impounded by police in Harare and released after the syndicate paid $10 000 bribe sourced by Mrs Moyo.
It emerged that a detective from Harare identified as Gumbo facilitated the payment of the bribe and release of the car.
“I lied to my husband because I wanted him to give me the car. I also lied to Chiros (CID officer stationed at Nkulumane Police Station) and told him that I was at home when he phoned because I wanted to hear what he would say,” said Mrs Moyo.
Mrs Moyo said this during cross examination by Khumalo’s defence lawyer, Mr Brighton Ndove of Marondedze, Mukuku, Ndove and Partners.
Mr Ndove said Mrs Moyo was a liar as she told the court that she did not know the identity of two other men who travelled in her car to Harare.
The team to Harare included Khumalo, his wife Mrs Elfina Khumalo, Mrs Mvereche, Mthandazo Tshuma and Sipho Mafu.
However, Mrs Moyo and Mrs Mvereche told the court that they could not identify the other two men who happened to be Mafu and Tshuma.
This is despite the fact that Mrs Moyo in her warned and cautioned statement told the police that Mafu and Tshuma were part of them.
She later said she heard Khumalo talking to Mafu and Tshuma on the phone while they were in Harare telling them to board a train to Bulawayo after the car had been impounded.
Mr Ndove queried why Mrs Moyo drove to Harare and gave $10 000 to Khumalo who she had met for the first time if she was not a member of the syndicate.
He said Mrs Moyo was only trying to implicate Mafu and exonerate other members because he had failed to pay her and her husband money for a battery they bought him.
“You committed the offence alone and abandoned your vehicle leaving your drivers’ licence in the car when the police discovered the loot and now you simply want to implicate others,” Mr Ndove told Mrs Moyo.
The State will invite more witnesses on Thursday next week.
The State would seek to prove that sometime in July 2012, Khumalo and Mafu together with Tshuma who is still at large, hatched a plan to hunt elephants at the Hwange National Park using cyanide.
They allegedly mixed salt with cyanide and administered it on watering points and trails to trap elephants.
The court was told that they allegedly killed 11 jumbos and removed 21 tusks which they took to Harare for sale.
In Harare the syndicate allegedly met a Congolese man identified as Mr Daniel Mpa but were arrested by police leading to the recovery of the 21 tusks weighing 249kg with a street value of $62 250.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter