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| Administrator |
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have received the following email from the previous owners of the Gwai Valley Conservancy. Below is the jest of his email. I know Thys, as I have met him a couple of times, once here in Dubai through another friend, and once in Zimbabwe. I have no more knowledge of what is going on, I just hope those who wish to hunt there are aware of this, in case they fall in contradiction of some laws at home. My name is Thys de Vries, a safari operator and PH in Zimbabwe. Our properties in the Gwayi Valley Conservancy were violently taken from us in 2003 by the chaotic land reform program, and so also were the other 17 neighbors next to us. Since we got removed from our properties in 2003 there has been many, many foreign hunters hunting on our stolen land in the Gwayi Valley Conservancy, both through South Africans PH’s and Outfitters and Zimbabwe PH’s and Outfitters and you can imagine how it burns us to see all this going on our land and people thinking its all ok and especially people who have a lot to say about hunting and hunting ethics. I can assure you the the list is long of all that have hunted in the Gwayi on our stolen land, but this is the first time somebody has posted on the internet about his hunt on stolen land. Gwaii Ranch is also land where the owners were violently evicted and which lies adjacent to my properties in the Gwayi and prior to our eviction I had the hunting rights on it for more than 10 years. Just some short history about my relationship with Wayne van der Bergh, he approached me about 2 months ago asking for my blessing to start hunting / operating in the Gwayi Conservancy Area and more specifically on my confiscated land. He advised me he had approached some of the other land owners (2 of them) who are the rightful owners of the land in the Gwayi area and they gave him their blessing to operate on the farms and I do not have a problem if the original owners of the land gives their blessing for PH’s / operators and / or hunters to conduct safaris on their land. But Gwaai Ranch is not one of the two properties Wayne van der Bergh got the blessing for. As I the original and rightful owners are personal friends of my father and myself and I had the hunting rights on this property for the 10 years prior to 2003, one can say its under my land. If you can not help me and do not want to get involved in posting for me, I fully understand and I thank you anyway for taking the time to read my story. Thank you and Best Regards Thys | ||
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| One of Us |
The Gwayi needs to be approached with caution. Firstly so American clients are confident that they are not dealing with specially designated nationals at any level . Secondly that the land "owners" actually have a quota for the animals on offer. And thirdly that any South African operators are working with licensed Zimbabwean PHs as required by law. Due diligence. | |||
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To all concerned . Quite frankly this is a low blow by Thys de Vries and I have told him so via email which I will attach to this reply .. Thys does not own all of Gwayi ..! I have known Thys for nearly if not 20 years , I myself hunted the Gwayi before the land take over and knew many farmers there , my own family were evicted off land throughout the country so I am very aware of what transpired . I spoke to Thys about hunting on his properties years ago and again earlier this year before the season started not 2 months ago as he claims . Its very unfortunate that this has to now come onto an open forum ( Not what I would have wanted ) nor do I want a pissing competition with Thys or anyone else. Over the years I have always considered Thys a friend and have always kept him informed about anything I felt he should be aware of ,, I had his back you could say ..we even worked together a few times , he brought me clients to hunt in Lupane and Umguza my campfire areas where I have made a huge difference as apposed to what it could be a complete waste land ... My email to Thys is self explanatory .. I have never ever hunted any of the farms in the Gwayi without the previous owners consent . never ever .. The property that Thys is referring to the owner is deceased and a very good family friend Dion Stefan who happily gave me consent along with Paul Bennie to hunt their properties is very aware of what I am doing in the Gwayi amd Dion is actually handling other affairs that I can not make public here . In a nut shell it was discussed between me and Dion and I would like to leave it like that .. All I can say in my defense is that we here go on a mans word and a hand shake and that's exactly how and why I trusted all was ok and I still do . I am committed to developing in my own capacity a few areas in the Gwayi . This is now 17 years ago since the land issue .. these areas have resettled hundreds of families on the farms I am working on. I trust that most will understand my position and know that I have strived to have a clean reputation and have always done that. Thys in my opinion knows exactly how to contact me , knows where I live has my email address and my phone numbers ... ! what a guy hey ..?? You'd think we have enough crap to deal with and yet here is a guy wanting to make stress for me ... trying to tarnish my good reputation bordering on defamation of character or possibly so .. Well i cant explain his actions . Please also note earlier this year I actually posted my intentions in the Gwayi on the forum and explained that I was doing this with the consent of the previous owners . I did not do this clandestine... All the best Wayne Van Den Bergh My email to Thys below : Hi Thys I received the letter you wrote from Cal Pappas who received it from Saeed ….. You have my number why not call me ?? I have always had your back 100% and this is how you repay what I thought was mutual respect for each other , in fact I considered you a friend and that letter you wrote to Saeed proves otherwise . I consulted Dion Stefan way back at the time I also advised you of my intentions in the Gwayi. It was actually Dion who said that he would personally contact the previous owners of Gwayi Ranch and assured me because they were also very good friends of Dion’s and he is also actually handling affairs here for them that it would not be an issue and that’s how I left it . I did not intentionally / purposely intend any grievance towards anyone , I have always consulted you on different matters and kept you in the loop with any information that I thought you should know about . But this ( Your letter to Saeed ) is a low blow and off sides . If you had called me I could have explained myself . The fact that you consider me to be on the same level as the South African operators and Zim operators / PH’s that have totally abused and screwed the Gwayi in the past is beyond me . My intentions are and have always been to preserve / protect and rebuild what game populations are left . You have no idea what I have discussed with Dion and what I intend to do for the previous owners specifically . I am committed to the area and told you so , there are anti-poachers in the area gainfully employed , I have at least put a stop to rampant abuse of over hunting by people that have no interest in conservation . I asked you this before what’s better for the area guys like me or individuals who are there only for a quick $$ .. I hope one day that the families of the original owners are compensated and better yet given back their land . I don’t know if either will take place that is yet to be seen . But I have no problem with either and if they were given back the land at least with proper management there will be something to come back to .. How the hundreds of families that are settled there will be removed is again a question . I don’t expect a reply to my letter so don’t feel obligated , you never contacted me about this as shown in your letter to Saeed . It is however good to know where I stand with you . Wayne Van Den Bergh NYAMAZANA SAFARIS nyamazanasaf@netconnect.co.zw www.nyamazanasafaris.com +263 9 247117 +263 772450375 NYAMAZANA SAFARIS | |||
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| Administrator |
Wayne, Why don't call Thys and sort this out directly with him. | |||
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Hi Saeed I am sure we will talk somewhere down the road... allot of stress could have been avoided had Thys contacted me , but then again he may believe he didn't have to ... Now that this topic is on AR and for the world to read I hope it doesn't come back to bite Thys and I mean that sincerely .. Best regards NYAMAZANA SAFARIS | |||
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Buyer beware. There are legal issues for US citizens hunting on at least some of the Gwaii properties. | |||
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| Administrator |
That is exactly why I had agreed to his request to post it here. If there are problems for American hunters, they should know about them. If there is none, it should be made clear so clients can hunt there with their minds at ease. | |||
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I was always under the impression that all of the Gwaii ranches were held by folks on the US SDN list. Are there some that are not? | |||
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| Administrator |
I was told that all hunting on confiscated farms is contrary to American laws. Not sure if this applies to hunters from other part of the world. | |||
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| one of us |
Legal or not, just know that if you are hunting on confiscated private land, you are directly rewarding some people that rank up (or should I say down) there with Goebbels on the scale of despicables. Worse than Saddam and on a par with that tick in N Korea. Every dollar they squeeze out of their ill-gotten properties is one more reason to resist restitution. Zim faces a turning point in 2018. It will either go down the path of civilized nations, or go to hell. And through their inaction, the western nations are condoning the worst example of government oppression since Cuba fell to Castro. Russ Gould - Whitworth Arms LLC BigfiveHQ.com, Large Calibers and African Safaris Doublegunhq.com, Fine English, American and German Double Rifles and Shotguns VH2Q.com, Varmint Rifles and Gear | |||
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I agree with you completely. But, sadly there is the other side of the coin too. There are many decent people who have lost practically everything they have due to the land confiscation, and some have no other means of supporting themselves and their families except to work with whoever the government has given the farms too. Where does one draw the line? As many of you know, I have been hunting in Zimbabwe for many years. And my friends who I have been hunting with have left Zimbabwe. If they were still hunting there, regardless of who they were forced to partner with, I would still be hunting with them. Supporting them far out weighs whatever benefit the undeserving parasites might get. This is just my own way of looking at it. | |||
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If one is a US citizen and does business with someone on the list, they are risking jail time. It is that simple. | |||
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| new member |
Morning all,as a committee member of the Zimbabwe Professional Hunters Association some careful homework on Certain properties in the Gwai Valley I C A.needs to be done for two reasons.There are Zimbabwe and South African operators selling illegal hunts there.We are trying to recover trophies for a client from fours years ago (150 000) dollars spent on lion,ele x2 etc and no permits to be found,,the property is listed so legal action not possible,secondly operator not registered,used unqualified ph.There is a list of reputable registered operators in Zimbabwe available from the Zpgha website before booking your hunt its imperative they are members if you wanting any recourse on a bad Safari.The association is there to answer any queries and point you in the right direction.We still have some of the best big game areas in Africa to hunt,,,just spend a bit of time to check out to book with the right operators. | |||
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Thank you Saeed for your positive comment much appreciated . If one has to look you would find that a large proportion of operators and current landowners that are operating in Zim have had to make a "plan" and work with or partner with a local Zimbabwean . That is the way it is like it or not . NYAMAZANA SAFARIS | |||
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I have been a member of ZPHGA for a good 20 years and I am a member of SOAZ.. Mazvita , I don't think your comment is constructive and it certainly is not helping or supporting .. Please can you consult the chairman before posting on behalf of ZPHGA .. And now that you have posted can you clarify some facts so that we are not all being smeared with one brush ... Who are you referring to / which property ? who is or was the PH? operator? and surely if no permits were issued something can be done as far as prosecution ? NYAMAZANA SAFARIS | |||
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Mazvita has a very good point. Best reason to book with ZPHGA members only. | |||
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It is good to see reputable operators now trying to resuscitate this area and get it up and running and back to what we all remember.Best of luck Wanyne and hope your new endeavors are fruitful | |||
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Thank you , time will tell I guess especially now whether I am going to continue doing what I am currently doing there. What most folks don't realize is that if someone like myself with good intentions is prevented from doing the conservation work that's desperately needed in these areas no one will and these areas will still be hunted regardless by someone else with zero ethics ....as has been the case for the past 17 odd years .. NYAMAZANA SAFARIS | |||
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Folks so to clear things up I trust, I have had a sit down meeting with Thys,it was an amicable and good discussion on all sides I wish we had had this meeting before anything was posted on the forum however as explained in my previous reply I hunted on this particular property on the understanding all was ok.It has now been made clear to me that Thys is representing the Family with regards to this property and should I get consent from them directly to continue there which I hope to do I will and Thys has no issue with that should I be given consent, however time will tell and I will only know in a few days or maybe a week or so ? Anyway until such time I will stop all plans on this one property until further notice. Thank you for your understanding . NYAMAZANA SAFARIS | |||
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Glad the parties are communicating and an equitable and helpful resolution can be achieved. Piss on Mugabe. | |||
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