Woman sells out hubby for illegally possessing ivory

Court Reporter

A ZIMBABWEAN working in South Africa was arrested for illegally possessing ivory after he was sold out by his wife, who was irked by his intentions to divorce her.

Brian Peter Busani Gumbu, of 7548/27 Tshabalala and employed by Auto Traders in South Africa, pleaded not guilty to contravening a section of the Parks and Wildlife Act (found in possession of unregistered raw ivory), when he briefly appeared before Bulawayo senior provincial magistrate, Mr Cephas Sibanda.
He was remanded to 30 May on $5 million bail for trial.
In addition, he was ordered to surrender his travel documents and report on Wednesdays and Fridays at Tshabalala Police Station.
Gumbu, who was represented by Mr Shepherd Chamunorwa, of Calderwood, Bryce and Hendrie Legal Practitioners, was also ordered to reside at his given address until the finalisation of the case.
The prosecutor, Mr Andrew Marimo, told the court that sometime last week, when Gumbu returned from South Africa he had a misunderstanding with his wife, Ms Sibongile Ncube at their home in Tshabalala.
It was heard that the misunderstanding later degenerated into a scuffle and Gumbu assaulted Ms Ncube.
He also revealed his intention to divorce her, the court heard.
Realising that her marriage was about to collapse, Ms Ncube decided to fix her husband.
Mr Marimo said on 17 April, Ms Ncube reported to the police that her husband was illegally keeping an elephant tusk at their home.
Acting on that information, police went to Gumbu’s house and conducted a search.
They allegedly discovered the tusk hidden in a spare bedroom, leading to his arrest.
The police, with assistance from National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority officials, established that the tusk, with a weight of 19 kilogrammes and valued at $19 million was not registered with the authority.

Ivory is worth a million a kilo???

quote:

Originally posted by calgarychef1:
Ivory is worth a million a kilo???

Zimbabwe Dollars.

Regards,

Terry

I figured I was reading something wrong.....or else there has been some awful inflation somewhere.

thanks

the chef

Or roughly US$192 for all 19 kilos.

I was ready to take up poaching at 1mil/kilo... till I ran the currency conversion.