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Zimbabwe: Chelsy's (Prince Harry's girlfriend) father at it again



Mon, 25 Jun 2007 00:03:00


Theresa Nkala


ALMOST a tonne of elephant tusks and rhino horns were impounded by police in Chiredzi on Saturday night as the van taking the loot to Buffalo Range aerodrome overturned, spilling its contents after hitting a stray donkey as it entered the farming town.

The two men who were in the car, are in Chiredzi Hospital under police guard. The pair, employees of HKK Safaris, jointly owned by Charles Davy, Britain's Prince Harry's girlfriend, Chelsy's father, and policy implementation minister Webster Shamu, implicated a South African national of British descent, a Gerrard Harvey, who was in the country for a week last month. He is now believed to be back in South Africa, awaiting his cargo.


Gerrard Harvey is a member of a highly-organised syndicate that smuggles ivory to South Africa where it is then shipped to the Far East. The ivory is used for dagger handles and as an aphrodisiac.

A Cesna 172 four-seater aircraft meant to fly the loot was also impounded at Buffalo Range aerodrome at the weekend. The pilot of the plane is under police custody. ZimDaily could not, at the weekend, establish the owner of the light aircraft.

Shamu has been fingered as the brains behind the dwindling black rhino in Hwange area. National Parks chief, Morris Mtsambiwa, early this year wrote a confidential report, widely circulated in the establishment, accusing Shamu and his partner Davy, through ther HKK Safaris of engaging in systematic poaching of black rhinos for their horns.

"More than 3 000 black rhinos were in conservancies controlled by HKK Safaris in December 2004. There were less than 1 500 left as of January 5 this year," he said. "HKK Safaris, which controls the conservancies, has not been able to give a plausible explanation."

However, no action was taken by the authorities against Shamu. Instead, police officers who tried to investigate him found themselves receiving transfer letters sending them to faraway places such as Mwenezi.

Shamu, once described by a Bulawayo-based economist as "an absolute hood", is an unpredictable character, well-known for instilling fear in his opponents. The policy implementation minister was notorious for swindling businessmen, mainly Asians during Rhodesia.

That prompted him to flee in 1974 to the then Zaire, ostensibly to watch the Muhamad Ali-George Foreman bout. He then joined the independence war, during which he led ZANU PF broadcasts from Maputo. He returned home in 1979 inder a new name, Charles Ndhlovu.

In 1989, he was in the courts facing 99 counts of fraud but the then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's interference with the judiciary saw him escaping the hook.

The only censure he got was losing his cabinet position. He kept the name Charles Ndhlovu until when it was impossible for anybody to bring up any charges against him. It was not long before Ndhlovu, who had now assumed his original name, Webster Shamu, was plucked from political obscurity. In 2002, he landed policy implementation portfolio.

In 2004, government announced it was investigating Davy, Shamu's business partner, for illegal currency dealings, after revelations by an undercover British journalist that money generated from the hunting business was being kept out of the country.

The journalist, Caroline Graham, from United Kingdom's Mail on Sunday, witnessed endangered species of animals, among the black rhinos, being killed barbarically for their horns.

Following the revelations, Davy immediately "sold" his holding in HKK Safaris but insiders say it was a ruse to put Zimbabwean authorities off his tracks. HKK charges mostly American clients US$30 000 for a 24-day shooting expedition and according to the Mail journalist, "all the money is kept offshore."

Ade Langley, a professional hunter then working for HHK, was quoted as saying: "Less than 20 percent of your dollars will ever enter Zimbabwe. All the money is kept offshore."

That prompted the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe-led smokescreen investigations. Nothing came out of that. In the meantime, poaching is continuing unabated as most conservancies are now under the direct control of Mugabe's cronies in ZANU PF and government after the ageing Zimbabwean strongman’s chaotic land grab that dispossessed almost 5 000 white farmers and businessman of their land and properties.

Police in Chiredzi confirmed they impounded the ivory and the plane and that "two men were helping them with their investigations".

However, Shamu switched off his mobile when contacted by ZimDaily about the matter.