Appeal cuts Zambezi man’s 9-year sentence for ivory dealing to 5 years

Two Windhoek High Court judges have reduced an effective prison term of nine years to which a Zambezi region resident was sentenced for dealing in elephant tusks to five years’ imprisonment.

Sipangule Kushonya’s sentence was lowered in an appeal judgement delivered by judges Naomi Shivute and Philanda Christiaan yesterday.

Kushonya (39) was sentenced to 12 years’ imprisonment, of which three years were suspended for a period of five years, in April 2022, after he had been found guilty in the Katima Mulilo Magistrate’s Court on a charge of dealing in two elephant tusks.

In the appeal judgement, Kushonya’s sentence has now been changed to seven years’ imprisonment, of which two years are suspended for a period of five years on condition that he is not convicted of dealing in controlled wildlife products, committed during the period of suspension.

Kushonya was arrested in November 2019, after he had offered two elephant tusks for sale to an undercover staff member of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism at a village in the Kongola area of the Zambezi region.

The two tusks weighed about 4,6kg and were valued at about N$2 500.

During his trial, Kushonya claimed he knew nothing about the ivory he was accused of offering to sell. He also claimed, though, that the elephant tusks belonged to a Zambian national who had left it in his care.

The crime Kushonya was convicted of “is indeed serious and prevalent, not only in the Zambezi region, but countrywide if not worldwide”, Christiaan said in the High Court’s appeal judgement.

Wildlife like elephants attracts tourism, and illegal dealing in controlled wildlife products or smuggling of it “will undoubtedly contribute to more unabated killing of wildlife”, Christiaan added.

She also noted, though, that Kushonya was a first-time offender and that he informed the trial court he was unemployed and the father of five minor children.

Considering that Kushonya was a first-time offender, “the sentence of 12 years is shocking, inappropriate and not a sentence that this court would have imposed, had it sat as the court of first instance”, Christiaan stated.

The magistrate who sentenced Kushonya “overemphasised the seriousness of the crime and did not judiciously exercise his sentencing discretion”, the judge said.

However, sentencing Kushonya to a fine, as was requested by him, would trivialise the crime, Christiaan said as well.
Shivute agreed with Christiaan’s judgement.

Defence lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji represented Kushonya in the appeal.

The state was represented by deputy prosecutor general Johannes Kalipi.