POLICE in Hwange’s Jambezi area allegedly shot a suspected poacher on the thigh, after they found him skinning one of two elephants he and his accomplices had allegedly killed.
BY SILAS NKALA
This was heard by the Bulawayo magistrate Sithembiso Ncube when Bryan Ncube (52) of Jambezi under Chief Shana appeared before her on Saturday charged with the contravention of section 59 of the Parks and Wildlife Act (illegal hunting).
He was not asked to plead to the charge. When asked if he had complaints against the police, Ncube said they shot him in the thigh during his arrest.
“I was shot in the thigh by police. We had gone fishing at Matizi River and I was looking for fish when seven people came to where I was, armed with firearms and forcefully took our mealie meal and went to a certain place near the river,” he said. “They called us to where they were. When they took our mealie meal they gave us meat and said we should go and collect more meat and sell it. We then asked what meat it was and they said it was elephant’s. They said they had killed two elephants. They pointed to us where the two elephants were.”
Ncube said when they went to where the dead elephants were he was shot in the thigh by the officers.
The court heard that on October 23 this year, Ncube and three accomplices, who are still at large, went hunting and allegedly killed two elephants using rifles. Only Ncube was arrested at the scene while, skinning the beast, while the other three ran away. The value of the two elephants killed is $150 000 and only meat worth $37 500 was recovered at the scene.
Ncube was remanded in custody to November 11 for trial.
