Rhino horns worth $3m vanish from Zimparks, board wants fired boss charged

A board of inquiry has discovered that 56 rhino horns worth $3 million vanished from the stores of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority in Harare. The board of Inquiry wants the former Director-General Mr. Edson Chidziya to be held accountable for the loss and to be investigated by the Zimbabwe Republic Police. Chidziya was fired for maladministration and abuse of office.

Part of the Board’s report reads:

At criminal level, the director-general should be charged with C/S 184 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23) ‘Criminal abuse of duty as public officer’. (He) exhibited a high level of negligence in the execution of his duties relevant to the matter at hand in that . .he failed to put in place security and control measures to prevent pilferage of rhino horns.

When the initial one rhino horn was discovered to be missing, a prompt report was made to the police at the behest of the director-general. However, when a similar and more serious case of the 56 missing rhino horns was brought to his attention, he did not report it to police since July 2015 to date. On being questioned by the board of inquiry, the director-general said that he wanted to get a second opinion to authenticate the quantities before making a report. It was the responsibility of Edson Chidziya to ensure that the matter was reported to the police.

The authority did not make an internal investigation in this matter with a view of establishing the perpetrator and or circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the horns.

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