THE owners of the Beitbridge game reserve invaded by suspected Zanu PF supporters recently will today attempt to throw out the settlers accused of massive poaching of wildlife.
Staff Reporter
A group of people allegedly led by deputy district administrator Peter Moyo descended on the Denlynian and Tamari Wildlife Conservation Area early this month and have already gone on a spree to kill game.
Ina Ferguson, managing director of Denlynain (Pvt) Ltd and Trans-Limpopo Carriers who run the wildlife sanctuary said they reported the matter to the police, but did not get any relief.
However, he said they would return to the police requesting escort for the deputy sheriff to flush out the invaders.
“The position at present is that the deputy sheriff of the High Court, who is in possession of an order of ejectment of all the invaders on the properties, approached the ZRP (Zimbabwe Republic Police),” Ferguson said through e-mail yesterday.
He said the police had in the past claimed the High Court order that was confirmed in July 2010 was too old to act on, but the position had changed after they consulted the courts.
“In law to claim that an uncontested High Court Order has an expiry date, illustrates the ends the police will go to, to avoid providing the sheriff with an escort — which legally they are obliged to do — which places them in contempt of the order,” Ferguson said.
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“There was a claim as well by the invaders that they had appealed certain provisions of the High Court order HC 771/10 which allowed them to occupy the wildlife conservation farm which the assistant district administrator ‘Peter Moyo’ and the lands officer had used to justify the issuing of new ‘A1 village type’ offer letters.
“To clear the nonsense up I went down to the High Court and paid the registrar for a search and a copy of the court order which I received certified by the registrar on October 24 2013.
“The records showed that there were absolutely no provisions in the High Court order that had been appealed, so the order stood in toto as originally issued.”
He said the documents would be presented to the police today.
“It is absolutely urgent that we have these illegal invaders ejected at the earliest possible (time) as they are on a looting rampage and slaughtering the wildlife.
“Even worse, they open the way for the people in the adjoining communal area to slaughter the wildlife in the absence of company staff, with impunity,” he said.
Police officer commanding Beitbridge district, Chief Superintendent Lawrence Chinhengo, at the weekend said investigations on the invasion were underway.
In 2010, the High Court evicted the same group from the conservation area.
