Antoinette Conservancy Farm Owner ‘Honest Trymore Ndlovu’ Charged For Helping To Kill ‘Cecil’

ANTOINETTE Conservancy Farm owner, Honest Trymore Ndlovu, who is accused of conniving with a professional hunter to kill collard male lion ‘Cecil’, has appeared in court.

Ndlovu, who runs a farm in Gwayi area just outside the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, had been waiting for his day in court since his co-accused Theodro Bronkhorst, owner Bushmen Safaris, was charged last month.

Ndlovu, 62, and residing in Bulawayo, was charged with contravening Section 59 of the Parks and Wildlife Act Chapter 20:14 (No person shall permit any person who is not ordinarily a resident in Zimbabwe to hunt on any land for which he is the appropriate owner.) He faces an alternative charge of allowing an illegal hunt to take place on his farm.

Represented by Tonderai Mukuku, of Marondedze, Mukuku and Partners, Ndlovu was not asked to plead when he appeared before Hwange magistrate Portia Mhlanga on Tuesday.

He was remanded out of custody to September 18 on $200 bail and ordered not to interfere with witnesses and to reside at his given address as part of his bail conditions.

Ndlovu allegedly connived with Bronkhorst who is out on $1,000 bail and set to be tried on September 28, to allow American dentist and avid hunter Walter James Palmer, 55, to kill Cecil early last month.

Prosecutor Fadzai Mharadze told the court that the 13-year-old lion had a collar with a GPS tracker.

Palmer allegedly used a bow and arrow to shoot the animal after luring Cecil out of the national park using another animal’s carcass.

The American is alleged to have paid $55,000 to Bronkhorst and his associates, including Ndlovu to hunt and kill the lion which gained fame overnight.

Cecil was being tracked by the Oxford University in England as part of its research since 1999.

The death of Cecil was only discovered when researchers at Hwange National Park Main Camp noticed that the lion, valued at $20,000, was stationary on GPS.

Tourism officials in the country have said the lion attracted large volumes of tourists to Zimbabwe, a major boost to the country’s tourism industry. source-newzimbabwe

photo-Zimbabwean safari operator Honest Ndlovu waiting  to appear in Hwange magistrates court, July 29 2015-reuters.

 

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