Africa > East Africa > Malawi > Tanzania has been protesting the torching of the jumbos ivory

Malawi: Tanzania has been protesting the torching of the jumbos ivory

2016/03/16

Malawi government officials in the northern city of Mzuzu yesterday went ahead to burn 781 pieces of elephants ivory believed to have been smuggled from Tanzania following a court order granting the permission to burn the trophy.

Tanzania has been protesting the torching of the jumbos ivory arguing that most of it was poached in the country and that it was part of evidence to be tendered in court against poachers.

Malawi, through the country's tax agency, the Malawi Revenue Authority (MRA), last year impounded the 781 pieces at the Songwe Border Post from alleged smugglers travelling from Dar es Salaam to the country.

The ivory is believed to have been smuggled from Tanzania in 2013 and that some Tanzanians were involved. The suspects in Tanzania used two Malawian accomplices, Chancy and Patrick Kaunda, to transport the ivory to Lilongwe, but the two were intercepted, arrested and later fined Malawi kwacha $7,000 by the Malawi High Court in 2015.

To prosecute the suspects in Tanzania, the government in 2015 obtained a 90-day-remain order from the Malawi High Court in Mzuzu to stop the burning of the elephants ivory until it concludes the case back home.

However, the Malawi court through Justice Dingiswayo Madise on March 2, 2016, ordered the government of Malawi to burn the elephants ivory yesterday, in full view of the public next Tanzania failed to extend the remain order.

Ironically, the Malawi government, despite expressing commitment to end ivory trade, secretly went to ask the court to stop the burning of ivory, but Judge Madise threw out the government application on Friday, for the exercise to go ahead yesterday.

Director of Parks and Wild Life Brighton Kumchedwa was Malawi's top government official who witnessed the burning of the elephants ivory at Mzuzu Nature Sanctuary. Reacting to elephtnats ivory burning, lawyer representing the government of Tanzania Christon Ghambi said the move would heavily affect the court case in the country.

He said by burning the elephants ivory, Malawi had frustrated efforts by Tanzania to prosecute current cases.

He said Tanzania was hopeful that Malawi would consider stopping to burn the remaining pieces of elephants ivory so that suspects in Tanzania could as well be convicted like their Kaunda brothers.

"Tanzania is not happy, it'll be hard for it to prove the case as the elephants ivory has been destroyed," said Ghambi.

But Kumchedwa said the Malawi was satisfied that the elephants ivory had been burnt, adding that the burning showed the government's commitment to fight ivory trade.

Related Articles

A motor vehicle assembly plant. East African states are tightening controls on used car imports in a drive to cut pollution and boost the local manufacturing industry.
2016/06/13 East African states are tightening controls on used car imports in a drive to cut pollution and boost the local manufacturing industry. Kenya recently announced that it would scale up its used car emissions laws, joining Uganda which has by presently introduced related taxes. Cabinet Secretary in Kenya’s Ministry of Transport James Macharia said that the policy would any minute at this time be in place and that motorists found to be in breach of the law risk having their cars deregistered. “By the end of the year, we will require vehicles countrywide to undergo a mandatory inspection to determine their level of toxic emissions,” said Mr Macharia.
Routes Africa forum aims to improve African air connectivity
2016/05/15 An event dedicated to the development of the African aviation industry will take place next month in Tenerife (26-28 June) to encourage the launch of new air services to, from and within the African continent. Routes Africa 2016 will help to improve African connectivity by bringing together airlines, airports and tourism authorities to discuss next air services. Around 250 route development professionals are expected to attend the forum which was founded ten years ago to stimulate increase in the industry.
While Europe is on the verge of breaking up, Africa is reaping the benefits of integrating, growing and developing its trading blocks
2016/05/13 The collapse of virtual borders is one of the majority remarkable things to have happened in our lifetimes. In the world of cyberspace, time and distance have become almost peripheral considerations at the same time as it comes to doing business. Services from software development to accounting can be delivered across the world in the blink of an eye. Next business leaders will struggle to imagine an era at the same time as communication was neither immediate nor virtually free.
Africa’s economic growth is likely to be slower in the intervening years
2016/05/12 Africa’s economic increase is likely to be slower in the intervening years than in the before decade, according to the new rating by Ernst & Young using a barometer to gauge the level of appeal and success.â€œThe baseline projection of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for 2016 is presently reduced to 3%, while it was estimated at 6.1% in April 2015″, Ernst & Young points out in its rating.
Raw materials have long been linked to Africa in many business people’s minds
2016/05/11 Oil, gold, diamonds, palm oil, cocoa, timber: raw materials have long been linked to Africa in a lot of businesspeople’s minds. And in fact the continent is highly dependent on commodities: they constitute as much as 95% of some nations’ export revenues, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. But propping a country’s entire economy on commodities is risky business, like building a mountainside home on stilts. You can’t be sure about the weather, or in this case the commodities market. The current free-fall of oil prices to less than $40 a barrel is a glaring example. “The commodities cycle has tanked out,” says Austin Okere, founder of Computer Warehouse Group (CWG), a Nigerian emerging multinational financial services company. “And this time it looks additional structural than cyclical, so it’s not a matter of waiting it out. Something has to give.”