The appellant and the other two accused persons were charged and convicted of contravening section 19 (1) and (2) (b) of the Fauna Conservation Act (Cap. 38:01) that is hunting without a licence on seven counts and also contravening section 62 (1) and (3) of the Act being the eighth count of hunting during closed season. The appellant appealed against the decision. He did not deny having committed the offences in question but stated that he had gone with one Xwiye Mogolege who had a special game licences to hunt the animals and had killed them as an associate. Xwiye was not a holder of the licences. He explained that the licences of his mother and brother had been informally transferred to him in his capacity as the head of the family and therefore believed he was entitled to use them.
Country
Court
Type of court
Seat of court
Francistown
Court jurisdiction
Date of opinion
1990
Abstract
Language of document
English
Transnational
No
Decision
The Court held that by Regulation 12 (1) of the Fauna Conservation (Unified hunting) Regulations of 1979 (S.I 19 of 1979) it is only a licencing officer, that is, a person appointed as such officer by the Minister under the Fauna Conservation Act, who is empowered to effect the transfer of special game licence. The purported informal transfer of the licence by the brother and mother of Xwiye was invalid and of no effect. The Court further ruled that since the seven counts constituting the offence were committed during one continuous operation, they had to be treated as one.
Appealed
Yes