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State Probes ZAWA Officers' Murders
28 October 2011




MINES and Natural Resources Minister Wilbur Simuusa yesterday told Parliament that the Government has instituted investigations into the shooting of two Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) officers in Kaala area in Sesheke District in Western Province last weekend.

Mr Simuusa told the House that the unfortunate incident was not in any way related to a statement made by President Michael Sata over ZAWA and his recent pardon of some prisoners over poaching-related offences.

The minister was responding to a question from Mazabuka (UPND) Member of Parliament (MP) Garry Nkombo, who wanted to know whether the Government was aware that last weekend heavily armed poachers shot dead two ZAWA officers in Kaala area in Sesheke.

Mr Nkombo also wanted to know what measures the Government had taken to protect wildlife officers from such attacks.

In his response, Mines and Natural Resources Deputy Minister Richard Musukwa said the Government was aware about the incident.

"The Government is aware that two wildlife police officers were shot dead on 22nd and 24th October, 2011 by poachers in Sesheke District in Western Province. The shooting happened when a team of four ZAWA officers were on patrol in west Zambezi game management area.

"They found an abandoned elephant calf which they managed to rescue. However, when they went back to investigate the cause of the abandonment, they encountered suspected poachers who opened fire on the patrol team and in the process one officer was shot dead," Mr Musukwa said.

He said the patrol team then reported the matter to Nangweshi police who joined the team and went back to the shooting scene to retrieve the body.

"Unfortunately, the suspected poachers were still in the area and continued to shoot at the patrol team. Consequently the body was only retrieved on 23rd October, 2011. The second officer was shot on 24th October when the patrol team in the company of officers from the Zambia Police Service from Nangweshi went to the shooting scene," he said.

He told the House that the Government would encourage joint operations between ZAWA and the police to bring to book dangerous poachers.

The Government would also work to get rid of illegal firearms from the public as they caused a security risk.


Meanwhile, contributing to the motion on thanks to President Michael Sata's address to the House, Mwinilunga West MP Stephen Katuka (UPND) said his party would offer constructive criticism to the PF Government.

He said he was saddened that the president had not appointed any Cabinet minister from North-Western Province.

Pemba MP (UPND) Mutinta Mazoka said the roads in her constituency were in a deplorable state.

Ms Mazoka, who thanked her late husband Anderson Mazoka, the founding UPND leader, describing him as "the president that never was", asked the Government to build more schools in her constituency.