POLICE in Livingstone have arrested a former Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) employee for shooting dead a worker at his farm when he was trying to chase baboons from his maize field.

Southern Province police chief Lemmy Kajoba confirmed the incident in an interview in Livingstone yesterday.

He said the incident happened on Wednesday between 13:00 hours and 14:00 hours, when Raymond Simanga of farm number 2659 near Maramba River, went to his field on his usual routine to chase baboons that had been raiding his fields.

As he reached the field, he heard some noise in one direction where he shot two bullets with the aim of scaring away the baboons.

After that, he heard someone shouting and when he went to check, he found one of his workers who was only identified as Greenwell moaning in pain.

Mr Kajoba said the two bullets both hit Greenwell of Maramba Township.
He said the first bullet hit him on the right arm while the second one hit him on the pelvis which led to excessive bleeding.

Mr Kajoba said someone who heard the shots notified the police using a 991 toll free line and when the anti-robbery squad was sent to the farm, they found the victim bleeding excessively.

Greenwell was rushed to the hospital where he later died and the body is now lying in Batoka Hospital Mortuary awaiting postmortem.

Mr Simanga was later arrested and is currently detained at Linda Police Station to help with investigations

In Kapiri Mposhi, police have launched a manhunt to track down a 42-year-old man who fled after having sex with his 19-year old daughter.

Central Province police chief Simon Mpande said in Kabwe yesterday that Gilbert Malambo of Mubana Village in Chief Chipepo’s area had carnal knowledge of his biological daughter on March 7 this year and ran away after people discovered what he had done to his daughter.

He said a Mr Kuswa Muteniwa, 49, of the same village reported Malambo to the police and when he heard about it, he bolted.

[Times of Zambia]

Tracking the wounded elephant to its death bed was easy for the ranger. Hit by a poison arrow, the huge mammal could only drag its hind leg, creating a wide gash across the bush.

Poachers’ footprints were all around the kill, but the hunters did not have time to remove the valuable ivory tusks before Mohamed Kamanya’s team of armed rangers arrived. Instead, the emotional task fell to the rangers, who cut off the tusks so they could not be sold.

Beginning this weekend, the international community will debate proposals from Tanzania and Zambia to allow a one-time sale of ivory to clear out stockpiles. Kenyan officials are warning that if sales are approved in neighbouring countries, elephant poaching will soar.

“We totally believe that any experiments to allow partial lifting of (the) international ban in ivory trade stimulates elephant poaching and leads to ivory laundering,” the Kenyan Wildlife Service’s Patrick Omandi said. “Indeed there has been an increase in poaching across the entire continent, with some countries losing their entire population.”

Poaching of elephants has risen seven-fold in Kenya since a one-time ivory sale was approved in 2007 by CITES – the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species – for four African countries, the wildlife officials say. Last year 271 Kenyan elephants were killed by poachers, compared with 37 in 2007, Omandi said.

Tribesmen have lived among wildlife for centuries in Tsavo East, a huge expanse of wilderness where some 6,000 elephants live. But park officials say those locals are increasingly turning to poaching. An average set of tusks can net $2,000 or more locally – a huge sum to an impoverished rural family in an area where seasonal rains have failed the last five years, ruining crops and spreading hunger.

Kenyan officials are particularly angered that Tanzania wants to sell its ivory stocks. Kenya and Tanzania share a long border where parks like Kenya’s Masai Mara and Tanzania’s Serengeti National Park intertwine. As Omandi likes to point out, elephants carry no passports, and cross the border freely.

At the CITES meeting in Qatar from March 13-25, Tanzania is asking the 175 members to allow it to sell almost 200,000 pounds (90,000 kilograms) of ivory. It noted in its proposal that its elephant population has risen from about 55,000 in 1989 to almost 137,000, according to a 2007 study.

Zambia wants to sell 48,000 pounds (21,700 kilograms) of ivory. Zambia says its elephant population of 27,000 is steadily increasing.

While populations might be healthy in those two countries, Omandi warned that populations elsewhere in Africa are being driven to extinction. Sierra Leone, in northwest Africa, lost its last elephants in December, and Senegal has fewer than 10 left, he said.

In its proposal, Tanzania argues that trade in elephant products is essential to conservation.

“Human-elephant conflicts are growing and the view by the communities is that elephants are a pest. Elephant products such as ivory picked up from the wildlife management areas could increase the value of elephants to those communities and this can only result in the community appreciating elephants more,” the proposal says.

Critics of the proposal point to poaching practices that drove down Africa’s elephant population from 1.3 million in 1979 to about 600,000 in 1989, when CITES banned the ivory trade, and say that poaching has surged since the 2007 ivory sale approval.

“I believe the risk of the sale is enormous,” Samuel Wasser, the director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington said. “If the current situation continues unabated, poaching is going to continue to rise. This will negatively affect many countries, not just Kenya and Tanzania. Effort needs to be put into stopping poaching, not arguing over whether we should have more sales.”

Omandi said African ivory is used to make rubber stamps and necklaces in Asian countries like China and Japan. Some consumers buy the tusks whole.

Though the majority of the ivory trade ends up in Asia, the United States also has an internal ivory market, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. From 1989 to 2007, the number of seizures of illegal ivory made by the service accounted for about 30 per cent of all reported seizures in the world.

The U.S. has not yet said whether it will vote to allow the sales. The Fish and Wildlife Service said it is waiting for a ruling from a CITES panel of experts.

In Tsavo East National Park, three-quarters of the 500 park staff are security personnel trained in paramilitary techniques, said Senior Warden Yussuf Adan. Last month, a team of rangers got into a shootout with six poachers, one of whom died of wounds from the exchange, he said.

“We think if the Tanzanians are allowed to sell their ivory stock, even the poachers in Kenya would be motivated,” Adan said. “They would know it’s easy to kill in Kenya and cross to the other side and sell.”

[THE ASSOCIATED PRESS]

In the message to mark this year’s youth day, which falls today, Southern African Center for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes SACCORD Executive Director Lee Habasonda says government should not use the youth day to politicize issues but find solutions to problems affecting the youth.

He said a large number of young people have remained unemployed and wallowing in poverty, while government has continued to ignore their plight.

Mr. Habasonda said it was disappointing that the political parties have continued to use the youths to push their dirty agendas through violence.

He adds that the republican president should work to address the challenges facing the young people in the country.

He said President Banda should learn from first republican president Dr. Kenneth Kaunda who had plans for the youths in the country.

Mr Habasonda noted that if Dr. Kaunda had failed to plan for the young people, the country would have not been where it is today.
QFM

The Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) has dismissed fears that the opening of flood gates at Lake Kariba is likely to affect both domestic and wildlife in the surrounding areas.

ZAWA Public Relations officer Wilfred Moonga told ZANIS in an interview in Lusaka today that the opening of flood gates posedno threat to wildlife because most animal parks were not along the river banks.

Mr. Moonga explained that it was the responsibility of the authority to ensure that animals in all parks were protected at all times.

He noted that if there were any signs of a possible flood which could affect wildlife, ZAWA could have put in place measures to mitigate such occurrence.

“As at now no measures have been put in place because we know that our animals are safe from these floods”, Mr. Moonga said.

He further said that at the moment all wildlife in Luangwa and lower Zambezi national parks are protected.

Mr. Moonga said whenever there were threats of floods in one area, animals were normally moved from the low lands to higher grounds.

“If there is any threat of floods the animals will automatically be moved to higher grounds were their safety is guaranteed,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Moonga has disclosed that domestic animals in the surrounding communities are expected to be affected by the floods once the gates are opened.

He explained that this is because some communities are so close to the river.
ZANIS

First Lady Thandiwe Banda has called for concerted efforts in addressing the challenges caused by floods in various parts of the country.

Mrs. Banda said one of the challenges that should be addressed is the issue of making polluted water clean and safe for drinking.

She said water was very important for human life hence the need to always make it safe for human consumption.

Mrs. Banda was speaking at State House this today when she received 1,200 bottles of chlorine from Society for Family Health (SFH).

She urged Zambians to always appreciate the importance of clean water especially this year when many sources of water have been contaminated by
floods.

She thanked Society for Family Health (SFH) for the donation and called on other corporate entities join in assisting government cope with the effects of floods.

And Society for Family Health Director for Programme Operations, Charles Kalonga said it was prudent to help ease the sufferings of people that have been affected by floods.

In Livingstone, District Commissioner Francis Chika has advised the city’s local authority to desist from allocating land for housing units in flood prone areas.

Mr. Chika sounded a similar warning to flood victims in Livingstone cautioning them against settling in low lying areas and land located near streams.

He said this when he received 100 x 10 kilogram bags of roller meal on behalf of the Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit.

The mealie meal was donated by the National Milling Corporation.

He said it would be unfortunate for the same people to be victims each time the city experiences floods.

Mr. Chika said such people might not receive aid from government if they refused to resettle in safer areas.

He said the recent floods that hit the tourist capital were the worst since 1958 when the entire country was hit by floods.

Mr. Chika said government alone could not tackle all the challenges the country was facing and called for concerted efforts from all stakeholders to work towards the continued development of the country.

He urged other business houses to emulate National Milling Corporation by donating to those in dire need of support.

And National Milling Corporation Managing Director, Peter Cottan said the donation was meant to mitigate the suffering of people who were adversely affected by floods.

Mr. Cottan said this in a speech read for him by National Milling Corporation Livingstone Branch Manager, Dennis Chiwaya.

ZANIS