TWO Victoria Falls men were yesterday each fined $200 for spearing and burning to ashes a python they viewed as a threat to the community. NOKUTHABA DLAMINI OWN CORRESPONDENT
Sifelani Ncube (42) and Newman Ngwenya (45) of Jambezi under Chief Shana pleaded guilty to killing a protected animal when they appeared before the Victoria Falls resident magistrate Sharon Rosemani.
The court heard that on February 4 Ncube and Ngwenya teamed up with other men to kill a python which had killed cattle, goats and dogs in their community.
It was the State’s case that one of the men, Ngwenyana Ngwenya (78), tried shooting the python with a 303 riffle and missed. The snake then hid in a hole and the men left the scene.
However, the following day Ncube and Newman went to the hole where the python had hidden armed with spears and began digging. They spotted the snake as they were digging and started stabbing it before setting it ablaze.
The matter came to light on February 6 when other villagers went to the scene and saw the ashes of the python and reported the matter to the police. In mitigation, the two’s lawyer Vuyile Mpofu of Marongede and Mukuku Legal Practitioners pleaded for a lesser sentence saying his clients did not know that the animal was a protected species.
“The two are family men without any valuable assets and they have pleaded guilty without wasting the State’s time. The python was a threat in the area as it had killed several livestock and dogs and it therefore worried them and that is the reason they behaved in that manner,” Mpofu said.
