• “We are willing to export more in the years to come…”

• $9 billion worth of ivory – Muchinguri

• “We will not apologize to anyone,”

By Wildlife Correspondent| As she fires an entire board, confirmed last Thursday, the Minister Of Environment Oppah Muchinguri Kashiri has reportedly signed off another 200 of Zimbabwe’s precious elephants.

The report comes within days of Muchinguri firing the entire board of directors of the National Parks and Wildlife. Minister Muchinguri last Thursday said that she was sacking the whole board of directors for assuming her executive powers.

The latest report narrates that Minister Muchinguri has allegedly sold off 200 elephants to foreign buyer.

While efforts by ZimEye.com to contact the minister for a comment were fruitless as her phone was not picked and neither her emails replied, Muchinguri is on record saying more of the country’s wildlife will be captured for China to as she claimed, give them a better and safer environment.

She said more animals will be exported in years to come. “We are happy that young African animals have been well accommodated here in China,” she said. “We are willing to export more in the years to come as it would help in the preservation of wild animals,” she said 3 years ago.

But Muchinguri has also said the animals would be sold off so to realise $9 billion worth of ivory. She 2 years ago told parliament her $9 billion worth of ivory, could turnaround the fortunes of the country.

Muchinguri said SADC was would lobby for the ban imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, to be lifted. “We have 96 tonnes of ivory and if we sell it, we will realise about $9,1 billion,” she said.

She is also on record saying she will never apologise for selling off Zimbabwe’s elephants.

“We will not apologize to anyone,” Muchinguri told the state media in 2016. “Not even once because they are our elephants and our people live with a huge population of elephants and bear the trouble of interacting with them.”

In the past, Zimbabwe’s policy of exporting its wildlife to China has drawn criticism from conservationists, who note that there is a high demand for the ivory that can be taken from elephants’ tusks in China. In 2015, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) ruled that a deal to sell 24 animals to China was illegal, but it went ahead anyway.

While some reports said that the wild animals are used in circus-style performances in the park, Muchinguri-Kashiri told reporters that she had visited the park and it wasn’t so bad.

In late 2015, the international National Geographic media house reported that the elephants in China were being mistreated and were slipping into poor health.