A man has bagged nine years  jail term for eating python, a protected species in Zimbabwe. The police, acting on a tip-off, found the 58-year old, Archwell Maramba, drying snakeskin and python meat stashed in his house.

The man said that he has been eating the snake-meat for its medicinal value. Maramba (58) was convicted on his own plea of guilty to contravening Section 45 of the Parks and Wildlife Act when he appeared before Mutare magistrate Sharon Chipanga on Wednesday.

“I wanted to eat the python to cure my spine and since I ate my first python I have seen remarkable improvement,” NewsDay quoted Maramba as saying during his court case.

The crime attracts a minimum mandatory jail term of nine years as pythons are classified as a protected species.

In mitigation, Maramba told the court that his friends had brought him the dead reptile and he wanted to eat it as it is believed to have some medicinal properties.

Prosecutor Andrew Motsi told the court that police pounced on Maramba on January 23 this year following a tip-off and found him drying the reptile’s skin with some of the meat stashed in his house, leading to his arrest.