HARARE – A Kwekwe farmer who found a pangolin on his property decided to drive 215km to Harare to hand it personally to President Emmerson Mnangagwa – a gesture that could easily have landed him in jail.
John Mapurazi put the endangered animal in his car and passed several police checkpoints on his way to State House. Had he been stopped, he would have faced a mandatory minimum sentence of nine years for mere possession of a pangolin under the Parks and Wildlife Act, which prohibits the hunting, capture or possession of specially protected species.
Mapurazi got lucky. State House officials showed understanding and granted him an audience with the president, who later handed the pangolin over to the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.
Unwittingly, Mapurazi may just have gifted pangolin poachers a new defence: “I’m taking it to the president.”
Zimbabwe’s pangolin population is unknown, but the species is listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and enjoys the highest level of protection locally. The country’s harsh wildlife laws prescribe a mandatory nine-year jail term for capturing, harming, selling or possessing a pangolin – a measure conservationists say is vital, although public awareness remains limited.
Parks officials say the best – and safest – way to preserve pangolins is simple: admire them from a distance and leave them where you found them.
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