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Zimbabwe's woes make it to MSNBC: Out of Africa implicated, US Fed Probe
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Just in time for DSC and SCI conventions (SCI is mentioned in the article), they have started naming PH's (Style brothers -- who are supposed to be at the SCI convention) and hunting operations (Out of Africa) being investigated by the US Gov't for ties to Mugabe's cronies. I'm not picking sides since I don't know enough (haven't been following it), but it looks like wants it to come home on us.

Dan

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10841107/site/newsweek/


quote:

Shoot to Kill
Inside the hidden links between American big-game hunters and Zimbabwe’s Mugabe dictatorship.
WEB EXCLUSIVE
By Joshua Hammer
Newsweek
Updated: 5:58 p.m. ET Jan. 13, 2006

Jan. 13, 2006 - Jocelyn Chiwenga is not a woman to be taken lightly. The wife of Gen. Constantine Chiwenga, commander-in-chief of Zimbabwe’s army, Mrs. Chiwenga has earned a reputation in her own right as a vicious enforcer for President Robert Mugabe and his ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Popular Front (ZANU-PF). In April 2002 she reportedly showed up at a farm outside Harare, the capital, with an armed gang and ordered the farm’s white owner to turn over his property to her or be killed, according to documents filed in a Zimbabwean court. One year later, Chiwenga accosted Gugulethu Moyo, an attorney for a pro-opposition newspaper, and beat her so severely that she had to seek medical attention. “Your paper wants to encourage anarchy in this country,†Chiwenga reportedly shouted as she punched and slapped the 28-year-old lawyer on a Harare street. “Chiwenga is as close to the center of power as you get,†says David Coltart, a parliamentarian and leader of the Movement for Democratic Change, the country’s main opposition party.

She also knows how to use her power. About three years ago, Chiwenga won an auction for a coveted lease on a 220-square-mile tract of bush, owned by Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Authority, located just outside Hwange National Park in southwest Zimbabwe. Abounding in the Big Five—lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and black rhino—Chiwenga’s property has since become a choice destination for professional hunters, particularly well-heeled Americans.

Now, Chiwenga’s business ambitions—as well as her political clout—have brought her to the attention of the U.S. government. Last November, the Treasury Department added Chiwenga, 50, to a list of 128 Mugabe relatives and cronies who are “undermining democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe.†The Treasury Department has blocked the assets of those on the list and established penalties of up to $250,000 and 10 years’ imprisonment for anyone who does business with them. And that executive order has put dozens, if not hundreds, of Americans who hunt on her land in legal jeopardy.

Chiwenga’s sanctioning by the U.S. government has drawn new attention to the unsavory, and usually hidden, links between American sportsmen and the Mugabe dictatorship. During the past six years, Zimbabwe’s economy has been in free fall, with the country’s gross domestic product dropping by half and agricultural production sinking by more than 80 percent. But hunting has remained one of the country’s few thriving industries, bringing in as much as $30 million annually, according to conservationists and professional hunters in Zimbabwe. Much of that cash has gone into the coffers of ZANU-PF insiders, who have gained control of government-owned safari land at below market prices, reportedly through rigged auctions in many cases. One of Chiwenga’s neighbors in the Victoria Falls area is Webster Shamu, Mugabe’s Minister of Policy Implementation, and a key architect of Operation Murambatsvina—“Clean out the Rubbishâ€â€”the brutal slum clearance program that has left some 700,000 poor black Zimbabweans homeless. (Shamu is among the original 77 insiders who had their assets frozen and were barred from entering the United States by the Treasury Department in 2003). Another big player is Jacob Mudenda, the former governor of Matabeleland North. All of them do a brisk business catering to professional American hunters, who make up about half of the clientele, according to industry insiders.

The Mugabe cronies-turned-safari operators are usually careful to conceal their direct involvement in the hunting business. Joyce Chiwenga, for example, seems to work through a network of agents that markets safaris heavily in the United States but never reveal the name of the property’s primary lease holder. Among them: Rob and Barry Style, owners of Buffalo Range Safaris, based in Harare. The Style brothers are regular participants at the Annual Hunters’ Convention scheduled for next week in Reno, Nevada,—a three-day marketing extravaganza sponsored by Safari Club International, America’s largest hunting club—and at other venues where American hunters congregate. Although Rob Style denied in an e-mail to NEWSWEEK that he had a business relationship with Chiwenga, several professional hunters in Zimbabwe insist that the brothers have frequently taken clients to shoot animals on her property. The Hunting Guide, an industry newsletter published in the United States, also names Buffalo Range Safaris as a hunting-safari operator on Chiwenga-owned land. Asked whether Safari Club International was concerned about the prospect of facilitating commercial links between American hunters and a sanctioned Zimbabwean figure, David Nagore, an SCI spokesman, says “On the advice of counsel, SCI has no comment on the matter.â€

American hunters are also flocking to private-game reserves that were seized without compensation, and sometimes with violence, from white farmers and ranchers as part of Mugbe’s radical land-reform program, which reached a peak in 2002. That property is now mostly in the hands of ZANU-PF activists and Zimbabwe independence war veterans—considered to be among Mugabe’s most diehard supporters. While hunting on these properties doesn't violate U.S. sanctions, human-rights activists and political opposition figures in Zimbabwe say that it is morally objectionable and helps to give legitimacy to a repressive regime. In addition, it is on these ranches, Zimbabwe conservationists charge, that some of the worst abuses of the country’s environment are taking place—abuses that could threaten the survival of Zimbabwe’s rich wildlife, especially the endangered black rhino. Many of the land owners who took this property by force have no experience in wildlife conservation: they reportedly ignore strict hunting quotas established by the Wildlife Authority on prized species such as lion and leopard. They also allegedly kill animals, including rhino, inside protected wildlife areas such as Hwange National Park, one of southern Africa’s most renowned game reserves. “Poaching is rife,†says Johnny Rodrigues, the head of the Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force, a private activist group. “There’s no law and order here.â€

Sorting through the thicket of charges and countercharges can be difficult. Larry Cumming, a white rancher, purchased Woodland Estates near Victoria Falls more than 30 years ago and developed it into one of the country’s best hunting and safari reserves. “I built dams, fenced the property, sunk 22 boreholes, purchased wildlife,†he says. But in 2001 the Mugabe regime forced him to surrender half his property—and half his hunting revenue—to 89 destitute Zimbabwean families as part of its land-redistribution plan. Threats were exchanged and, in 2003, Cumming and his wife fled the ranch and moved to Victoria Falls. At that point, a local safari company, Inyathi Hunting—partly owned by Mudenda, the former provincial governor and a close associate of Mugabe—signed a deal with the ranch’s new owners to take over commercial hunts on the property. During the past two years, Cumming charges, Inyathi has been ignoring quotas, hunting for game on other properties, and failing to keep track of wounded animals—a serious violation of hunting ethics. “Inyathi is hunting there knowing that they will not have the property forever, so there’s pillage and rape [of the environment],†Cumming charges.

Steve Williams, the founder of Inyathi and now a marketing consultant for the company, says that he and his partners had no qualms about buying rights to hunt on land that Cummings says was stolen from him. “If your government goes with it [as a policy], then you have to go with it,†he says. Williams claims that Cumming is spreading untrue reports because he is embittered about losing the property. “I can’t condemn the man for being emotional about something that’s been his for years, but we were never a part of that,†he says. He argues that much of the hunting revenue benefits poor black Zimbabweans who wouldn’t have shared the wealth during the days of white ownership. “The 89 black families who have taken over Woodland Estate now have safe drinking water, a better standard of living, an income. We’ve taken the blows, the allegations, the ridicule of people like Cumming. But we’re operating the property in a manner that we are proud of,†Williams says.

That may be so. But in September 2005, Mudenda, along with three other top officials of ZANU-PF, were accused by a conservation group in Zimbabwe of using fake hunting permits and poaching wildlife in the Intensive Conservation Areas in Matabeleland, established by the government in 1991 to protect rhino, elephant, lion and other prized species. All have denied the charges.

Debate also swirls around what many industry sources call the most controversial operator in Zimbabwe: Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris. Founded by four former South African policemen and based in both South Africa and Overland Park, Kan., the company has done a brisk business taking a heavily American clientele to hunt on several ranches that, according to industry watchdogs in Zimbabwe, were seized by ZANU-PF activists and independence war veterans. Critics, including the Zimbabwean Association of Tourism and Safari Operators, say that the group uses poorly trained hunting guides who, among other violations, sometimes endanger the lives of their clients and overhunt species in violation of the Zimbabwean government's hunting rules.

Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Authority banned Out of Africa last year from operating in the country. “This is an unscrupulous organization that doesn’t respect the environment and pursues unsustainable quotas,†says David Coltart, the opposition leader. Conservationist Johnny Rodrigues calls the company the most “flagrant violator†of hunting regulations in Zimbabwe. Dawie Groenewald, one of the founding partners of Out of Africa, denies that his company has done anything ethically wrong and says that he has been slandered by white Zimbabwean hunters. “The white Zimbabweans hunting in Zim don't want anyone else coming in there to hunt—they hate South Africans coming to hunt in their kingdom," he told NEWSWEEK. Out of Africa's attorney, Kevin Anderson, says that “these allegations about poaching and other illegal activities have been floating around for several years and they've never been substantiated.†Anderson also says that Out of Africa recently decided to stop organizing hunts in Zimbabwe because “it's just become too difficult.â€

Whatever the case, next week in Reno, Out of Africa will set up its usual booth at the SCI convention—just down the hall from Buffalo Range Safaris, according to the SCI Web site. But for the hundreds of American sportsmen browsing for an African safari next week, finding out the full story of those two companies’ activities in Zimbabwe will require a real hunting expedition.
 
Posts: 518 | Registered: 19 June 2005Reply With Quote
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That is an excellent article. Thanks Dan for picking up on it. It should be required reading for all hunters considering a hunt in Zim.
 
Posts: 280 | Location: Tanzania | Registered: 11 March 2005Reply With Quote
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quote:

Shoot to Kill
$250,000 and 10 years’ imprisonment for anyone who does business with them.
[/QUOTE]

Jesus Christ!

Is that the Lacey Act?

Zim really is a problem. There are some excellent companies with very good hunting and even better prices - but you have to be soooo very careful about whom you do business with.






 
Posts: 12415 | Registered: 01 July 2002Reply With Quote
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Steve,

Here are the penalties for violating the Executive Order (doing business with the banned individuals or companies):

Criminal fines for violating the Executive Order or regulations to be issued pursuant to the Executive Order may range up to the greater of $500,000 or twice the pecuniary gain per violation for an organization, or up to the greater of $250,000 or twice the pecuniary gain per violation for an individual. Individuals may also be imprisoned for up to 10 years for a criminal violation. Knowingly making false statements or falsifying or concealing material facts when dealing with OFAC in connection with matters under its jurisdiction is a criminal offense. In addition, civil penalties of up to $11,000 per violation may be imposed administratively.

If a hunter also imports trophies, taken in violation of the Lacey Act, the penalties would be:

Fine of up to $250,000 and a jail term of up to 5 years.

Regards,

Terry



Msasi haogopi mwiba [A hunter is not afraid of thorns]
 
Posts: 5338 | Location: A Texan in the Missouri Ozarks | Registered: 02 February 2001Reply With Quote
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The article did not specifically name the concessions, but I believe this is correct:

Matetsi Unit 1 - Webster Shamu

Matetsi Unit 3 - Inyathi Hunters

Matetsi Unit 6 - Mrs. Chiwenga

Cabelas has been the booking agent for Inyathi Safaris.

Buffalo Range Safaris (Rob and Barry Styles) have hunted on Matetsi Unit 6 in the past.


Regards,

Terry



Msasi haogopi mwiba [A hunter is not afraid of thorns]
 
Posts: 5338 | Location: A Texan in the Missouri Ozarks | Registered: 02 February 2001Reply With Quote
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And there are others connected, albeit quite smartly through double strand red-tape, to Shamu as I alluded to on a previous thread. jorge


USN (ret)
DRSS Verney-Carron 450NE
Cogswell & Harrison 375 Fl NE
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NRA Life Member

 
Posts: 7149 | Location: Orange Park, Florida. USA | Registered: 22 March 2001Reply With Quote
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The Newsweek article conveniently fails to point out that when the Styles were hunting on Matetsi 6 Jocelyn Chiwenga was not on the "prohibited list".

Or, that they have not booked any hunts there since the list was published.

Les
 
Posts: 1261 | Location: Clearwater, FL and Union Pier, MI | Registered: 24 July 2003Reply With Quote
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quote:
Inyathi

SmilerIn the interest of injecting even a little more reality, in a recent conversation with Barry Style, I asked about hunting on Unit 6. His reply was "No, being an American, you absolutely cannot hunt there."

There was no attempt to mislead, minimize the issue, or disguise the problem in any way. It's a shame that the article appears to smear a really fine family by putting them in the same category as Out of Africa.

On the unethical outfitters operating in Zimbabwe, you might see an earier post from me on that outfit - "wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole." I've encountered them "operating" in Zimbabwe, formed my own opinion, and will never have anything to do with them. Glad they're out of there, at least.

Just my two cents.
 
Posts: 742 | Location: Kerrville, TX | Registered: 24 May 2002Reply With Quote
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It is unlikely that the Styles would be involved in any hanky panky. They are old, (third generation), reputable and honest operators. I was pleased and relieved to read HT's post. I would expect nothing less from Rob and Barry.

However Inyathi Hunters and many others so far unmentioned have a lot to answer for. Zimbabweans operating like Inyathi Hunters are even more morally corrupt than foreign rapists such as Out of Africa.

My two cents too, but these are big and important issues.
 
Posts: 280 | Location: Tanzania | Registered: 11 March 2005Reply With Quote
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Thanks Terry,

Penalties seem very severe - can someone tell me if anyone has actually been prosecuted for doing business with the wrong person and if so, what the outcome was?

with penalties like that one would need to be ultra careful about exactly who one does business with......and I wonder how one could do that.......for example if Joe US Citizen took a hunt with a company who were not on the list but that same company actually sub let (or even, sub, sub let) an area "owned" by someone on the banned list would that mean that Joe US Citizen could then be prosecuted?






 
Posts: 12415 | Registered: 01 July 2002Reply With Quote
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I am posting this on here too:


Posted Jan 14, 2:10 PM
Ok, it's time I step up and make my thoughts known about Buffalo Range Safaris and the Style Brothers, Barry and Rob, I've spent over 100 days with this crew! On the hunt in Zimbabwe and at my home in New Jersey, and they are welcomed at my home anytime! I consider them good friends, incredably hard workers, and top Professional Hunters. And I can tell you one thing, Both brothers are a class act, you won't find a nicer more trust worthy company then BRS, I've been on 6 safaris with them,and plan on setting up a 7th safari with them at Reno! I have had nothing but great times, hell everyone of you AR members have seen my reports on safaris I went on with them! this 5 star company goes back over 50 years, have built a impeccable reputation as a world class safari company, they are very conservation minded, They keep very tight reins on their quota on animals, What they have done for conservation and hunting should be rewarded not treated like criminals!! This whole thing I conceder bull shit! As for their hunting in Matestsi, Jocelyn Chewinge was not on the list of sanctioned officials, when they were booking safaris there. they are booking hunts in their other areas of Zimbabwe. Which I plan to go on!
And my final thought, well for now, I'm sure I will have alot more to add to this, I believe in these two briothers and I will continue to go on safari with them as long as they will have my sorry ass!

Final thought! Don't even think about comparing Buffalo Range Safaris to Out of Africa! Barry and Rob hunt on their land, they take only their quota on that property, Very ethical hunters, they follow the law to the T, remember, this is not here say, I've been there I've done that enouph to know who this family is! They aren't even on the same page, no that's not true, their not even in the same book as OoA!

If anyone would like to talk with me about this outstanding safari company PM me, email me, call me, come visit me! I'm here!

Thank you!





"America's Meat - - - SPAM"

As always, Good Hunting!!!

Widowmaker416
 
Posts: 1782 | Location: New Jersey USA | Registered: 12 July 2004Reply With Quote
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There's lots at stake in this -- good folks are likely to get caught in the gears... then there's folks just trying to hang on, maybe making choices that later end up putting them on the wrong side. Then there's just shady operators. For some regular web participants on this forum from Zimbabwe, I've noticed they've gone quiet for the most part... and they almost never make anything but very neutral political comments. I've sometimes worried for their safety.

I didn't post this to provoke pissing matches, or to demean folks like the Styles. The article is -- like most news articles -- drawing *short* lines of dots inviting you to connect them, even though it doesn't *exactly* say they are implicated -- such as the Styles. Anyone who has found themselves quoted in the press knows exactly how much that opens your eyes to the way news is reported, and how much you can trust it.

Nevertheless, the report DOES indicate there is some serious stuff coming about Zimbabwe's repatriation program and its abuses, and how the land issues are going to affect hunting opportunities. There are going to be anti groups who would love to take this and use it against all African operations -- if they can. Its likely to be a problem.

Dan
 
Posts: 518 | Registered: 19 June 2005Reply With Quote
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I wholeheartedly agree with everything H T and widowmaker have said about Buffalo Range Safaris.

I was standing right next to H T when Barry Styles told him: "being an American, you absolutely cannot hunt there."

There is so much bullshit going around about Zimbabwe now, that it makes your head swim. 95% of it is from people who have never even been there, or never want to go there. Sorta like Ted Kennedy preaching about morals.

I have personally hunted with Buffalo Range Safaris twice within the past two years. Once at Buffalo Range and once in Kazuma. Both of them came off without a hitch, both of them delivered more than I was promised, and both of them were hunts of a lifetime. I have never hunted with more ethical people.

Barry, Rob, and PH Brent LeesMay who works for them are all honest as the day is long. All of them have always been upfront about what you can expect, have never promised more than they can deliver, and have never exagerated any aspect of their operation, the conditions of the country, or anything. I took my wife with me in May of 2005, and she never once felt that she was in any danger, or that we were not in "good hands".

It makes me sick that people who have never met the Styles impune their reputation with lies and inuendos that they pass off as "fact".

Have the Styles hunted Matesi #6? Yes of course. But at the time they hunted it, it was a very viable operation, under no restrictions.

To classify Buffalo Range in the same mold with Out of Africa is absolutely repugant to anyone who has ever dealt with Buffalo Range. I will continue to book with Buffalo Range. They are a class outfit, and I have never been disappointed with them. They have earned and deserve my respect.
 
Posts: 1002 | Location: Dixieland | Registered: 01 April 2002Reply With Quote
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Whether or not the PHs operating there are good guys or not is not the question. The issue is simple. Do you feel it morally and ethically correct to contribute to such an oppressive and corrupt regime by even going there?


"When you play, play hard; when you work, don't play at all."
Theodore Roosevelt
 
Posts: 4263 | Location: Pinetop, Arizona | Registered: 02 January 2006Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by billinthewild:
Do you feel it morally and ethically correct to contribute to such an oppressive and corrupt regime by even going there?


Answer: YEP.
 
Posts: 1002 | Location: Dixieland | Registered: 01 April 2002Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by billinthewild:
Whether or not the PHs operating there are good guys or not is not the question. The issue is simple. Do you feel it morally and ethically correct to contribute to such an oppressive and corrupt regime by even going there?


I personally believe that every hunter has the right to make his own decision about that.... or more precisely, no-one has the right to make that decision for someone else. Zim has a lot of problems and it's fair share of dodgy operations but it also has some extremely good and honourable people and outfits.

We don't operate in Zimbabwe because we made the decision that things can go wrong too easily nowadays...... but that was a business decision. I certainly wouldn't condemn someone for deciding to hunt there......at the end of the day, it's their decision.

That said, even if it were the most effecient country in Africa I still wouldn't allow my business to spend a single cent that might find it's way into that mad bastards pocket. Wink






 
Posts: 12415 | Registered: 01 July 2002Reply With Quote
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SmilerDoes anyone realistically expect an NBC writer to come up with anything postive on the hunting industry? Or even objective? Wouldn't we expect innuendo and accusations, and not fact-based, even-handed discussion?

Anything other than the bias in their tone would indeed leave me shocked and amazed. I hope we all take that into account in reading what they put forth.

Agree with Shikari up to the point of going (or not) to Zimbabwe. So long as I'm spending my money in a way that rewards people I respect and helps people that need it, I'm not going to worry about the "trickle effect" going to that baboon they call their president. So thanks, Shikari, for pointing out the right to individual choice in this matter, guided by our own conscience. Seems that a hunting forum ought to reflect significant emphasis on the freemom to choose that you describe - well done!

And thanks to Jeff Alexander for confirming my story about Barry Style. Small point of clarification - although Jeff was technically standing next to me, being a couple of hours into the evening, he was listing some 15 degrees to port. beer Glad his wife was there to drive him home....
 
Posts: 742 | Location: Kerrville, TX | Registered: 24 May 2002Reply With Quote
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Actually, Whilst I said I wouldn't condemn anyone for hunting there, I gues I should have also said that I would condemn them if they hunted on illegally seized land etc.

The problem is that a lot of hunters don't know enough about the political aspect of their sport. I met some hunters last year who were on their way home from a hunt with OoA and they very obviously didn't have a clue about the Lacey Act etc etc.......






 
Posts: 12415 | Registered: 01 July 2002Reply With Quote
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quote:
Does anyone realistically expect an NBC writer to come up with anything postive on the hunting industry? Or even objective?


HT. Great point! Did you notice the animals in the article a Leopard and a Giraffe, two animals that would catch the most attention!





"America's Meat - - - SPAM"

As always, Good Hunting!!!

Widowmaker416
 
Posts: 1782 | Location: New Jersey USA | Registered: 12 July 2004Reply With Quote
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The Style family and Buffalo Range Safaris are pioneers and legends in the Zimbabwe hunting community. Rob and Barry's granfather, George Style, was one of the first to develop modern day hunting in Zimbabwe. He is prominently mentioned in Craig Boddington's "African Hunter II" in the "Zimbabwe" section.

Their reputation and professionalism is above reproach.

I have had the personal pleasure of meeting and getting to know the Style brothers and Brent Lees May over the past 4 years. I was introduced to them through a mutual friend and long time repeat client of Buffalo Range Safaris. We have talked at length on hunting in Zimbabwe and the current environment affecting that country. The perspective from them is vastly different from the media's.

This article shows the medias slant and bias. As others have said, the article has many factual errors. Not surprising. Widowmaker, Jeff A. and others who have been there and hunted with Buffalo Range know the truth. To have them, Buffalo Range, in the same article with OOA is damn disgrace.

Bottom line is that I believe in Buffalo Range Safaris, Rob and Barry Style and am willing to back my words. This week, my hunting partner and I booked a 10 day buffalo and plains game safari with Buffalo Range Safaris for 2007. I can't wait!

If you are attending SCI and have any questions or would like to meet Rob and Barry, stop by their booth. Be prepared to meet two of the most likeable, unassuming and professional hunters that you can imagine. I can't wait to share a camp and hunt with them.

Regards,

RCG
 
Posts: 1132 | Location: Land of Lincoln | Registered: 15 June 2004Reply With Quote
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quote:
Originally posted by RCG:
The Style family and Buffalo Range Safaris are pioneers and legends in the Zimbabwe hunting community. Rob and Barry's granfather, George Style, was one of the first to develop modern day hunting in Zimbabwe. He is prominently mentioned in Craig Boddington's "African Hunter II" in the "Zimbabwe" section.

Their reputation and professionalism is above reproach.

I have had the personal pleasure of meeting and getting to know the Style brothers and Brent Lees May over the past 4 years. I was introduced to them through a mutual friend and long time repeat client of Buffalo Range Safaris. We have talked at length on hunting in Zimbabwe and the current environment affecting that country. The perspective from them is vastly different from the media's.

This article shows the medias slant and bias. As others have said, the article has many factual errors. Not surprising. Widowmaker, Jeff A. and others who have been there and hunted with Buffalo Range know the truth. To have them, Buffalo Range, in the same article with OOA is damn disgrace.

Bottom line is that I believe in Buffalo Range Safaris, Rob and Barry Style and am willing to back my words. This week, my hunting partner and I booked a 10 day buffalo and plains game safari with Buffalo Range Safaris for 2007. I can't wait!

If you are attending SCI and have any questions or would like to meet Rob and Barry, stop by their booth. Be prepared to meet two of the most likeable, unassuming and professional hunters that you can imagine. I can't wait to share a camp and hunt with them.

Regards,

RCG


We're not the ones you need to convince. It's the Government that you need to speak to.

IMO you are taking a big chance in booking Zim in 2007. That's a long time when you consider the Government over there is now rolling up the Conservancy's.
 
Posts: 6277 | Location: Not Likely, but close. | Registered: 12 August 2002Reply With Quote
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I have known the Style family for over a decade and have hunted with them many times, and yes in Matetsi. Curious of the timing of this article and its intent.
In regards to Jocelyn Chewinga she purchased the lease at an open auction in 1998 well before any sanctions were applied and before any farm invasions took place and yes Buffalo Range sends clients there. However, since Mrs. Chiwenga has been blacklisted no more hunts have been booked and hunts that have been booked will be moved to other areas.
Buffalo Range itself is over eigthy thousand acres. If the Styles are in partnership with people as powerful as the Chewinga's why has their once pristine property been literally destroyed by squaters. Most of the vast number of animals have been poached and land cleared of trees that have taken decades to grow have been cut down.Their six hundred hectre cane population has been virtually wiped out with only fifty hecters under cultivation. The same can be said for all of the othr crops that were once grown on this property. Buffalo Range is also home to one of the biggest herds of Black Rhino which are looked after by game scouts twenty four hours a day seven days a week. Curious someone whose family has been in Zim for over one hundred years would be breaking the law and in partership with people who have virtually destroyed their country. To bad the writer of this article did not go back far enough and do his homework.
 
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