I have received Piet’s reply to all the nonsense over the article in AIM “Safari Company Charges Ficticous Taxâ€and Barry Van Heerdens comments.

Unfortunately, this subject has been beaten to death, but when people make false accusations, it is necessary to post Piet’s reply.

(A bit of an explanation, before reading the response. Mozambique requires Piet to have a black Mozambique partner. I deleted his name for privacy reasons. Not that any of you would know him.)

new_guy, reply freely, as I bring this on myself I must be a glutton for punishment.

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Dear Wendell,

I am in receipt of a letter sent to you by Van Heerden and the piece on “Correction Demanded From Safari Companyâ€.

This whole issue is about Van Heerden trying to steal my area, because he has boxed himself into such a corner that one of the few places left for him to hunt is Mozambique. When I foolishly did him a favour and let him hunt there, he saw what a beautiful area it was, and immediately thought of a way to get me out so he can get it. That is his nature. He has a history of bad behaviour in the safari industry. Van Heerden even went to Maputo and had meetings with my Mozambican partner [John Doe], suggesting they get rid of me so he and [John Doe] could take over the company.. That is when he went to AIM with this 16% tax business. A lot of information in the latest email sent by AIM is incorrect, but I will get to that later.

First of all, how childish can one get? I do lease the area but it is known as my area, just like areas in Tanzania are known as Pasanisi’s area’s, or concessions in Zimbabwe are know as Barry Duckworth’s areas, etc.

The clients do not get charged anywhere near the taxes they should. They should be charged 17% vat on the daily rate, which I don’t charge but absorb myself from the daily rate. Where this whole thing has become problematic is that the wording “16% Export Tax†should rather have been worded “fees to export trophies.†I kept the wording “16%export tax†as that is the way it was put to me by Emofauna the very first year I hunted in Mozambique in 1988. Nothing has ever been said about it, so I never thought there was anything wrong. All the fees charged under the 16% are legitimate and cover part of the 17% vat ( 16% on trophy fees is a lot less than 17% on daily rate.)

There are certain certificates I told you about. I have to send one of my representatives from Tete to Harare to the camp, then back to Tete. This is to physically have a paper stamped with the trophy lists by an official in my area after physically inspecting the trophies at the camp. We travel through Harare as there is no satisfactory road maintained in Mozambique. My rep then flies to Maputo to process all export documents. This can take up to 2 weeks in which time he stays in a hotel and has all his meals there. He also always has to wine and dine a few officials to make sure the process goes through smoothly. He then flies back to Tete where more paperwork gets done. My rep, with a customs and veterinary official from Tete then have to be taken to the camp to inspect the trophies and stamp all documents, This can take a week. Not only do I have to supply transport, accommodation and food but I also have to pay the officials a daily allowance, so as you can see all these things plus the vat is not even covered by the 16%. Where money had to be paid to the Government it was done with proof, mainly to the Ministry of Finance. From Tete my rep then has to go to Harare with the documents to get the Zimbabwe temporary import permits. This again involves travel, border fees, a visa and hotel accommodation and food. This is where the transportation and documentation fee comes in. It is for the Zimbabwe documents and physically getting the trophies from the camp to Harare.

I have an agreement with Van Heerden where I gave him 4 buffalo hunts in return for work he did for me. The agreement states that he must pay all trophy fees. He has only paid for a zebra and still owes for 4 buffalo bulls. When he realized I would not export the trophies until he paid, he took the trophies from the camp, plus some elephant skin, and took them to Zimbabwe. My agreement with Van Heerden is in Pretoria, but I can send you a copy when I return.

The trophies are not ruined. The delay in shipping trophies I explained to you before, but we are trying our best to speed things up.
Van Heerden’s claim that officials told him there are still outstanding trophy fees to be paid by me is a lie.

The trophy fees quoted by AIM are applicable to all other outfitters in Mozambique. I pay different, much higher trophy fees than the rest. I will send you a copy of the fees as received by the Wildlife Department. To quote some of the fees mentioned by AIM the Government charges all other operators US$416.00 for a lion, we pay US$2000.00. Now I ask who is pocketing the most money? Most of the other operators charge the same or more than Safaris De Mozambique for their trophy fees.

Since hunting licenses are only valid for 45 days we get each one just before the hunt this involves a road trip of 900kms, hotel bills, etc, hence the fee of US$400.00. The same goes for gun permits as these are done in Maputo. The officials require the original copies must be in the camp and that is why we physically do each one ourselves.

I disagree with the AIM report as there is a Customs (Alfandega) Export Tax on all items including trophies and a tax levied by the chamber of commerce so I suggest Mr clever reporter from AIM goes and does his homework again. In any case I am going to take legal action against both AIM and Van Heerden for libel.

Another completely blatant lie is the piece about my company being in litigation with the local communities. I cannot see Minister Sumbana saying this if he was not sure of his facts. This was made up by the reporter or Van Heerden. Ask them for the case number and in which court the case came up, since I know nothing about it. I have always paid all fees to the communities as set out by the Government. In fact I pay all monies in Tete and the governor hands it over to the communities at an official ceremony at the end of the year. Although I am not compelled to, I give most of the meat to the communities, delivered at their door step and there is a book where they sign for it.

So please ask these jokers to produce a contract that I have broken with the local community. On the contrary, I provide more than I am asked for, in the way of medical treatment at my camp and transporting sick people to hospital. I have also provided soccer balls and soccer jerseys to the community. We also started to build a school at Chintopo the administrative headquarters in the area where the D.A. is based. Maybe the D.A. should be contacted and asked what he thinks of my company.

I am puzzled by the behaviour of wildlife officials in the hunting concession and in Tete, capital of the province. Although notified of Van Heerden’s smuggling of trophies, they failed to arrest him. Why? Among the trophies he took out of Mozambique he included 2 elephant tails and some panels of skin. THESE WERE NOT TROPHIES. Do the officials in Tete have the authority to allow the export of trophies without the prescribed formalities – and in contravention of CITES?

If the trophies have now been exported from Zimbabwe, how was this accomplished without the necessary documentation from Mozambique?

I also think that these people pointing fingers at me should look at the other safari companies in Mozambique – especially those with some political connections – to see who makes the most profit and the biggest mark up. Also, let’s see what they have done for the local communities.

Please use the information judiciously to respond to both AIM and Van Heerden’s email.

Best regards,

Piet

Thank you for the update on this topic.

I hope that Mr. Hougaard will be able to deal with his detractors and get back to the business of hunting.

Gentlemen,

I have been told by people I have absolute trust in, to NEVER deal with van Heerden.

I think this sounds like a very good advice!

Piet is a good guy who I will always be grateful to for saving a buffalo hunt when the scheduled hunt in Zim went to sh!t. He made me a more than fair deal on the hunt. I wouldn't want to cross him as he has managed to hang on to a very good area in Moz for a number of years and is certainly able to handle himself in any situation. He went out of his way to open his camp to me and jumped through a ton of hoops to get my visa and gun permits issued in a very short time. Plus, I killed one of about 600 buff I saw and took a very good hippo as well in 5 days. I would trust anything he told me as being as close to the truth as you are likely to hear in Africa.

Perry