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POLICE in Tsholotsho have warned villagers in possession of cyanide believed to have been used in the killing of 109 elephants at the Hwange National Park that they will start arresting them following the expiry of the amnesty.
In an interview on Tuesday, the officer-in-charge of Tsholotsho Police Station, Chief Inspector Muyambirwa Muzzah, said the grace period, which was given to villagers to surrender the chemical, was over and anyone found with it would be arrested.
“We suspect that the villagers did not surrender all the cyanide they were having, anyone we find with the chemical would be arrested.
“We only received about 3kg of cyanide and we suspect there is still more out there,” he said.
He said some villagers were assisting the police in carrying out investigations as some people were suspected to be still holding the dangerous chemical.
The Pumula villagers under Chief Siphoso in Tsholotsho were given up to the end of October to surrender all the cyanide they had before arrests could be made.
The villagers had asked for the amnesty before a ministerial delegation, which was led by Minister of Environment, Water and Climate Cde Saviour Kasukuwere, comprising Cabinet Ministers Professor Jonathan Moyo (Information), Cde Kembo Mohadi (Home Affairs), Dr Sydney Sekeramayi (Defence), Dr Ignatius Chombo (Local Government) and Engineer Walter Mzembi (Tourism).
The ministers had visited Pumula villagers to discuss the way forward regarding the killing of elephants at the Hwange National Park.
Earlier this week, Chief Siphoso confirmed that some of the villagers had surrendered the cyanide they were keeping in their homes.
He said all the cyanide which was surrendered by the villagers had been handed over to the police.
The villagers were alleged to have been exploited by poaching syndicates, which would pay them about $500 to poison elephants and the syndicates go on to sell a pair of tusks for as much as $17 000 on the black market.
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