TWO villagers from Lupinyu area under Chief Mvuthu in Victoria Falls have been ordered to perform 350 and 210 hours of community service respectively, for snaring and killing a kudu in the Matetsi area.
By Nokuthaba Dlamini
Mike Mathe (60) and Chanda Ncube (58) were sentenced on their own plea of guilty to poaching when they appeared before magistrate Rangarai Gakanje.
The court heard that on January 24 this year, the pair was arrested after being found in possession of kudu meat and admitted to snaring game for a living.
“My family is struggling, we have no food and I am a poor man. My children were sleeping on empty stomachs, so the option was to snare wild animals. We are begging the courts to give us a lenient sentence, as our families are looking up to us for food,” Mathe said in mitigation.
The court heard that Mathe was once convicted for the same crime in 2014, but Gakanje spared him a custodial sentence on condition he performs 210 hours of community service at Jabula Primary School. His accomplice Ncube, who was initially slapped with a six-month jailed term was ordered to do 140 hours of community service at the same school.
