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Prosper Dembedza Herald Correspondent
TWO men from Harare were on Wednesday fined US$300 each, after they were found guilty of unlawful possession of two zebra skins.
Rungano Chacha (50) and Leonard Kutyauripo (33) were convicted of contravening the Parks and Wildlife Act by Harare magistrate Mrs Ruth Moyo.
The two killed two zebras, removed the skins and transported them from Mhondoro to Harare without a permit. On Saturday, Detective Assistant Inspector Mufara of CID Minerals, Flora and Fauna Unit in Harare received information that the two were in possession of zebra skins in Mhondoro and were looking for buyers.
Detective Assistant Inspector Mufara managed to contact Chacha pretending to be a buyer of animal products. The two agreed to meet at Mbudzi bus terminus in Harare to finalise the transaction on Sunday.
He was kept updated about the position of the accused persons on their way to Harare.
A police team was waiting at Mbudzi when Detective Assistant Inspector Mufara arrived at the agreed place. Chacha got into his vehicle and negotiated for a price for the skins. The duo went to collect the zebra skins in Kutyauripo’s motor vehicle and on return, Chacha disembarked from the vehicle with two sacks containing the zebra skins and went to the detective’s vehicle. The back up team was signalled and reacted immediately by pouncing on the two accused.
During the search, detectives recovered two full fresh zebra skins, which were wrapped in white sacks and two cement empty bags separately. The pair was requested to produce a licence or permit that authorised them to possess the zebra skins and they failed leading to their arrest.
The recovered fresh zebra skins were salted and were valued at US$5 000.
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