BY NOTHANDO DUBE
A Hwange man has been jailed for nine years after he was found trying to find buyers of raw ivory in the coal mining town.
Jimstone Regiment (30) from Ingagula was arrested on April 22 this year outside OK Supermarket in the twom centre.
Prosecutor Jamesina Makanza told Hwange provincial magistrate Tomupei Zhou that on the day Regiment was arrested, detectives from the police’s Minerals Flora and Fauna Unit received information that he was in possession of ivory.
He was using a Toyota Gaia vehicle.
A team comprising of police officers and Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority went on a surveillance mission around Hwange and spotted Regiment with his accomplices near Ok Supermarket.
He was found seated at the back seat of the vehicle with a bag and his co-accused Brighton Sangumbwa (32) was behind the steering wheel.
One piece of ivory was found in Regiment’s bag and another two pieces were behind the rear seat of the vehicle.
The two were asked to produce a permit for the possession of ivory, but they failed to do so, leading to their arrest.
The ivory weighed 2.295 kilogrammes and valued at US$390.
Regiment pleaded not guilty to the charges and claimed that on the day in question he was asked by a friend, he only referred to as Matters, to deliver a parcel at the OK Supermarket as he was going out of town.
He said he was told that he would hand over the parcel to a man identified as Rodrick and he never bothered to check what was in the bag.
Regiment claimed that he boarded the Toyota Gaia vehicle, which parked outside the OK Supermarket.
He said he was surprised that Rodrick was a police officer and that he had been trapped.
Regiment insisted that set up by state agents.
On the hand, Sangumbwa told the courts that he had been hired by Regiment and did not know that he was carrying ivory.
“I was contacted by the accused who is his brother’s tenant at Ingagula for transport services in exchange for five litres of fuel,” Sangumbwa said.
“I then drove him to OK Supermarket as he indicated that he needed to meet someone from Bulawayo, who was already waiting at the place.
“He then disembarked for a few minutes and came back to sit at the back seat, and moments after, a police officer who identified himself as detective Constable Nkala came to our car and stated that we were under arrest for possessing ivory without a permit.”
At the end of the trial, Zhou convicted Regiment and handed him the mandatory nine year jail sentence the unlawful possession of raw ivory in contravention of section 82(1) of the Parks and Wildlife (General Regulation SI 362/1990) as read with section 128 of the Parks and Wildlife Act (Chapter 20:14).