https://www.thestandard.co.zw/...-stolen-livelihoods/



Nuanetsi: A case of wasted investment, stolen livelihoods

January 20, 2019 in Local, News

NUANETSI RANCH, a large multi-purpose farm the size of 1% of Zimbabwe, is a fallen giant whose prospects of recovery appear next to nil.

By Rex Mphisa



Unless drastic action is taken to bring back life to this 900 000-acre former paradise, it will remain literally dead, directly benefiting only one family, the Rautenbach family, that allegedly keeps a hold on the property at the expense of thousands that used to draw life out of Nuanetsi.

Resident director of Nuanetsi Ranch Charles Madonko says businessman Billy Rautenbach has, despite the expiry of his company Green Fuel’s 10-year contract, remained put.



Reports say slow decision-making saw Green Fuel move investment capital meant for Nuanetsi Ranch to Chisumbanje in Chipinge, but the investor kept a presence, the attraction being a variety of other business opportunities the vast ranch has to offer.

Legal disputes between the Nuanetsi Ranch board and Green Fuel have spilled into the courts over ownership of the little that remains of the 25 000 head of cattle that used to be at the farm at its peak.

Once a cattle producer of substance, a host to tourists, hunters from around the globe and an adventurer’s paradise that employed close to 1 000 people — the Development Trust of Zimbabwe-owned Nuanetsi Ranch is now a centre of dispute and mistrust.

All its pioneer workers have left, reportedly empty-handed, while the 10-year-old joint venture to revive what was once the “oasis” of the dry Mwenezi district remains on the drawing board as the contract sees its last year of tenure.

Nuanetsi Ranch was known for its contribution towards development of Mwenezi’s cattle farmers by providing quality pedigree bulls over the years for free.

Situated in the south-eastern Lowveld of Zimbabwe, Nuanetsi is one of the largest privately owned conservancies in Africa, boasting a prime hunting area of over 148 000 hectares and 48km of lush Bubye River frontage.

The vast range is home to simple lodges, described as intimate by previous visitors, settled amongst huge leadwood trees providing an upmarket life deep in an African bush with its Wi-Fi and generator-powered electricity.

The lodges have the most beautiful view of the Mwenezi River, one of Zimbabwe’s biggest rivers, which has pools of water all year. It is a hidden sanctuary that brings adventure-loving people closer to the wild.

In Nuanetsi four of Africa’s dangerous game species are available for hunting and it is home to a strong population of Cape buffalo as well as the hippo and crocodile.



Nuanetsi further boasts some of the best leopard hunting sites in Zimbabwe, as well as a great number of game including giraffe, eland, nyala, kudu, bushbuck, wildebeest, zebra, impala, warthog, bushpig and steenbuck to mention a few.

All this now belongs to Rautenbach.

“We have nothing here anymore except the history and misery. We cannot even pay workers who are attached to me,” the resident director said.

“We are deep in debt and we are at the same time being pushed into a small corner of our own land,” Madonko told The Standard recently.

“We entered into an agreement with Green Fuel owned by Rautenbach, but the deal is almost swallowing us yet there is nothing to show for it after 10 years.

“In fact, we have had our workers, almost 1 000 of them, fired and we remain with 14 here with me. Those who left were not paid a cent. The team I have here, including me, have not been paid for a long time,” said Madonko showing visible signs of stress.

Their deal with Green Fuel was, on paper, a piece of brilliance.

Signed in 2008, when Nuanetsi Ranch made the news for kicking out about 40 black resettled farmers in favour of a white investor, Rautenbach, the deal was meant to transform the semi-arid land into a green belt.

The partnership would have also seen the cattle herd on the ranch rise from 4 500 then to 30 000 in five years and a large hectarage of irrigable sections put under sugarcane for a proposed ethanol plant.

Hunter expeditions and tourism for the game sections and world- class chalets and accommodation on the large farm were set to become more active than ever. Along all that, it was planned that thousands of jobs would be created.

Rautenbach, a renowned and shrewd businessman with interests across Africa, also known to be heavily connected politically, had promised to turn Nuanetsi Ranch green as well as a holiday paradise, Madonko said.

“But all we have is misery and debts. He has sold the crocodile farm that he created in our farm, we have less than 1 500 cattle left and he is claiming they are his,” Madonko said.

Madonko was left in charge of the ranch by the late Father Zimbabwe Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo.

History says Nkomo had vowed to buy the farm after colonialists taking him captive to Gonakudzingwa Detention Camp in the Gonarezhou National Park tied him to a baobab tree on that farm while they had tea.

In 1989 the late nationalist lived up to his dream, acquiring the farm, where he would later spend most of the days in the twilight of his life.

Nkomo’s goal was to establish a farm that would uplift the lives of the community around it, employing them and facilitating their land and animal husbandry as well as transforming the ranch into a medical and resource centre.

He died before full realisation of his dream and at the height of farm seizures Nuanetsi agreed to accommodate indigenous farmers who moved in to graze their cattle on an arrangement with management.

The farmers were later evicted to make way for Rautenbach’s seemingly lucrative deal.

Green Fuel chief of operations and security head Robson Matonhodze, an ex-Zimbabwe National Army senior official, did not respond to questions despite undertaking to do so almost five weeks ago.

Conrad Rautenbach, the investor’s son to whom The Standard was also referred, said the reporter’s questions were one-sided.

“Listen my friend, if you want to be a good reporter, don’t ask one-sided questions. Send those questions to my email and I will respond,” he said. He, however, did not do so up to the time of going to print.

Madonko and his aides say they have been pushed away from the ranch headquarters and now live in a house that is almost an island on the farm that used to belong to Nkomo.

With three old cars — a Mazda B1600 pick-up truck, a 1979 Mercedes Benz 115 and a grounded BMW, which is sitting on brick stands, — Madonko is confined to the late Nkomo’s house.

In contrast, situated just behind the house, Rautenbach’s workers occupy the large farm headquarters and run a modern workshop and a fleet of new vehicles among them 2017 models of Landcruisers.

Madonko says potential investors are scared by the presence of Rautenbach, who is reported to have defied veterinary instructions and erected a fence around Nuanetsi after relocating buffalo from Hwange.

When Madonko tried to sell 500 cattle to settle the farm debts, Matonhodze, who was escorted by armed members of the Support Unit, allegedly seized the beasts from an abattoir in Beitbridge.

Against standing government regulations he drove back 62 beasts and took with him carcasses of the slaughtered ones which he sold to a local supermarket before reporting Madonko for stock theft at Mwenezi police station.

Mwenezi district administrator Rosemary Chingwe refused to comment on the matter saying it was out of her jurisdiction.

“Seriously, I cannot comment on that. (I can speak on) everything else about the district, but not that,” she said.

National veterinary director Dr Josphat Nyika also failed to comment on why cattle were driven from a red zone to a green zone.

“I am not aware of that,” he said.

Cattle that have reached an abattoir by law should be slaughtered because it is considered a red zone, potentially carrying diseases. However, Matonhodze managed to drive live beasts from Beitbridge.

The name Rautenbach seems to crop up quite often in very negative reports!

Probably easy to pick on him as he is I assume white

quote:

Originally posted by boarkiller:
Probably easy to pick on him as he is I assume white

There were a number of whites who propped Mugabe while he was in power, because it benefit them too.

And as the pr4sent ruler was one of Mugabe’s henchmen, I would not be surprised if the same deal is being done.

Sounds like the game portion of the ranch is the only success story here.

Turn the rest of the ranch into game???

No idea if it is true or not. I have to wonder just what he stands to gain by wrecking the place?

And as any news, this could be reported on biased basis
And I’m not disputing any, only would like to hear the other side of the coin

A good friend, James Watts, developer of the .450 Watts cartridge, hunted Nuantesi in the late 1950s. The manager at the time was Boyd Reece. Jim paid 7$ per day as his daily rate and the license fees were so low it is laughable by today's standards.
Cal

Lets see:

Green Fuel - Bust
Cattle - Bust
Game - Winner.

Not rocket science, convert the rest to game. Would be the next Save/BVC at 900,000 acres.

I hunted there in 2002. Was a hunting paradise. For the 2003 I decided to buy half of a hunting quota with the local PH of the area called Mbizi. Were maybe 50 animals, partly I sold partly I shot for myself. Was a great experience. More that one month of hunting in africa. After we lost the concession. Went there after a couople of years; no leopards, very few game.

I hunted the Nuanetsi Ranch in 2015, 2017, and 2018. The leopard and plains game hunting was incredible.

Go Saints!

Wow! I had some of the first clients on there once hunting was reopened and they had an amazing hunt. They killed the biggest leopards that I think any of my hunters ever took.

Mark

It is my understanding that Rautenbach also owns or controls Chewore North, and shut down the hunting program there a couple years ago, supposedly to let the area "rest and recover." He has a huge place just upriver from that area. Very posh looking, with a giant hot tub overlooking the Zambezi from the upper level. With the Chinese looking to explore for minerals in the Chewore River, (supposedly a World Heritage site), eliminating human presence in that area would allow for illegal activity. I believe Billy's name popped up in an article posted on AR in the last few days. It was about an oligarchy of men who allegedly have a stranglehold on what goes on in Zim. There are people who post here on a regular basis that have a far greater knowledge of this than I do. Hopefully some of them can shed light on this apparent bad news for the wildlife and hunting in this area.

I hunted Nuanetsi in 2001 when the buildings came down and around 2.008.
Hunting was fairly average back then. apparently its great now but it is behind wire as far as Im aware. supposedly good numbers of Buffalo that csme from Wankie Park and some great Leopard.
Rich Schultz guides ghe area along with others like Kambako and Mbalabala Safaris.
Not much to be said about Billy other than that he has been doing buisness in Zim and other parts of africa for many years and is connected to ghr right people.

Hey Gents

As Fjold said to me a while ago “stay away from the political forum”….. so I am doing so.

But I would like to add my 5 cents to the above news report.

I have been hunting in Nuanetsi Ranch for nearly 10 years now, and I can say that it has been such a success story for game, hunting and conservation and we still are continuing to grow and build the Ranch today!!! We have a 24/7 anti-poaching unit that works hard at looking after our boundaries and our game. The management team also works around the clock to ensure that clients have the best possible hunting experience.

At the inception of the project, there were very very few wild animals left on the Ranch, the land was not being utilized correctly and was in poor condition, it had been over grazed, over poached and over hunted, with no water points working and no protection against poachers. With a huge amount of work and effort the game has turned around and we can now boast some of the best hunting in Zimbabwe today.

There are very few places that can compete with Nuanetsi Ranch for the quality and quantity of game that we have. For the past 4 years we have been collecting data on our leopards as we all know the USFW is putting pressure on leopard hunting. This past 2018 season the Ranch had the best average of leopard shot in the whole of Zimbabwe. Going into this 2019 season we can comfortably and conservatively say that we have over 15 shootable leopard that we have captured on trail cameras and have identified and that we have been watching throughout the past 4 years and we can comfortably put an age on them. The buffalo population has grown significantly and we have been able to increase our quotas every year and our success rate is just about 100%. The plains game has also grown and we have abundant numbers of eland, kudu, wildebeest, nyala and many other species!!!

From when I first started hunting there nearly 10 years ago to today the transformation has been amazing, the quality and quantity of game has been increasing every year and our quotas are managed strictly.

The Ranch supports many workers and families and myself and a few other hunters and our families, I am passionate about hunting there and can honestly say that the Ranch has grown into an awesome hunting and conservation ground!!!

I want to end off by saying that you can not please everyone and there are jealous people everywhere, some have worked their butts off to get where they are and others think they can get handed things for free. Everyone who works on the Ranch puts in 100% effort every day to look after the game and the land.

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Schultz:
Hey Gents

As Fjold said to me a while ago “stay away from the political forum”….. so I am doing so.

But I would like to add my 5 cents to the above news report.

I have been hunting in Nuanetsi Ranch for nearly 10 years now, and I can say that it has been such a success story for game, hunting and conservation and we still are continuing to grow and build the Ranch today!!! We have a 24/7 anti-poaching unit that works hard at looking after our boundaries and our game. The management team also works around the clock to ensure that clients have the best possible hunting experience.

At the inception of the project, there were very very few wild animals left on the Ranch, the land was not being utilized correctly and was in poor condition, it had been over grazed, over poached and over hunted, with no water points working and no protection against poachers. With a huge amount of work and effort the game has turned around and we can now boast some of the best hunting in Zimbabwe today.

There are very few places that can compete with Nuanetsi Ranch for the quality and quantity of game that we have. For the past 4 years we have been collecting data on our leopards as we all know the USFW is putting pressure on leopard hunting. This past 2018 season the Ranch had the best average of leopard shot in the whole of Zimbabwe. Going into this 2019 season we can comfortably and conservatively say that we have over 15 shootable leopard that we have captured on trail cameras and have identified and that we have been watching throughout the past 4 years and we can comfortably put an age on them. The buffalo population has grown significantly and we have been able to increase our quotas every year and our success rate is just about 100%. The plains game has also grown and we have abundant numbers of eland, kudu, wildebeest, nyala and many other species!!!

From when I first started hunting there nearly 10 years ago to today the transformation has been amazing, the quality and quantity of game has been increasing every year and our quotas are managed strictly.

The Ranch supports many workers and families and myself and a few other hunters and our families, I am passionate about hunting there and can honestly say that the Ranch has grown into an awesome hunting and conservation ground!!!

I want to end off by saying that you can not please everyone and there are jealous people everywhere, some have worked their butts off to get where they are and others think they can get handed things for free. Everyone who works on the Ranch puts in 100% effort every day to look after the game and the land.

Congratulations and good luck to everyone associated with this wildlife success story.

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Schultz:
Hey Gents

As Fjold said to me a while ago “stay away from the political forum”….. so I am doing so.

But I would like to add my 5 cents to the above news report.

I have been hunting in Nuanetsi Ranch for nearly 10 years now, and I can say that it has been such a success story for game, hunting and conservation and we still are continuing to grow and build the Ranch today!!! We have a 24/7 anti-poaching unit that works hard at looking after our boundaries and our game. The management team also works around the clock to ensure that clients have the best possible hunting experience.

At the inception of the project, there were very very few wild animals left on the Ranch, the land was not being utilized correctly and was in poor condition, it had been over grazed, over poached and over hunted, with no water points working and no protection against poachers. With a huge amount of work and effort the game has turned around and we can now boast some of the best hunting in Zimbabwe today.

There are very few places that can compete with Nuanetsi Ranch for the quality and quantity of game that we have. For the past 4 years we have been collecting data on our leopards as we all know the USFW is putting pressure on leopard hunting. This past 2018 season the Ranch had the best average of leopard shot in the whole of Zimbabwe. Going into this 2019 season we can comfortably and conservatively say that we have over 15 shootable leopard that we have captured on trail cameras and have identified and that we have been watching throughout the past 4 years and we can comfortably put an age on them. The buffalo population has grown significantly and we have been able to increase our quotas every year and our success rate is just about 100%. The plains game has also grown and we have abundant numbers of eland, kudu, wildebeest, nyala and many other species!!!

From when I first started hunting there nearly 10 years ago to today the transformation has been amazing, the quality and quantity of game has been increasing every year and our quotas are managed strictly.

The Ranch supports many workers and families and myself and a few other hunters and our families, I am passionate about hunting there and can honestly say that the Ranch has grown into an awesome hunting and conservation ground!!!

I want to end off by saying that you can not please everyone and there are jealous people everywhere, some have worked their butts off to get where they are and others think they can get handed things for free. Everyone who works on the Ranch puts in 100% effort every day to look after the game and the land.

Thank you Rich.

For the 3rd time, they need to scale back or eliminate the green fuel & cattle and increase the area for game!! NOT ROCKET SCIENCE

quote:

Originally posted by Rich Schultz:
Hey Gents

As Fjold said to me a while ago “stay away from the political forum”….. so I am doing so.

But I would like to add my 5 cents to the above news report.

I have been hunting in Nuanetsi Ranch for nearly 10 years now, and I can say that it has been such a success story for game, hunting and conservation and we still are continuing to grow and build the Ranch today!!! We have a 24/7 anti-poaching unit that works hard at looking after our boundaries and our game. The management team also works around the clock to ensure that clients have the best possible hunting experience.

At the inception of the project, there were very very few wild animals left on the Ranch, the land was not being utilized correctly and was in poor condition, it had been over grazed, over poached and over hunted, with no water points working and no protection against poachers. With a huge amount of work and effort the game has turned around and we can now boast some of the best hunting in Zimbabwe today.

There are very few places that can compete with Nuanetsi Ranch for the quality and quantity of game that we have. For the past 4 years we have been collecting data on our leopards as we all know the USFW is putting pressure on leopard hunting. This past 2018 season the Ranch had the best average of leopard shot in the whole of Zimbabwe. Going into this 2019 season we can comfortably and conservatively say that we have over 15 shootable leopard that we have captured on trail cameras and have identified and that we have been watching throughout the past 4 years and we can comfortably put an age on them. The buffalo population has grown significantly and we have been able to increase our quotas every year and our success rate is just about 100%. The plains game has also grown and we have abundant numbers of eland, kudu, wildebeest, nyala and many other species!!!

From when I first started hunting there nearly 10 years ago to today the transformation has been amazing, the quality and quantity of game has been increasing every year and our quotas are managed strictly.

The Ranch supports many workers and families and myself and a few other hunters and our families, I am passionate about hunting there and can honestly say that the Ranch has grown into an awesome hunting and conservation ground!!!

I want to end off by saying that you can not please everyone and there are jealous people everywhere, some have worked their butts off to get where they are and others think they can get handed things for free. Everyone who works on the Ranch puts in 100% effort every day to look after the game and the land.

I hunted there in August 2017 and it was awesome! Big herds of eland and buffalo and all the rest of plains game except sable and roan. Great bird shooting as well. I hope this report doesn't signal the beginning of the end for Nuanetsi Ranch.

Isn't this were Chifutti(sp) safaris operates and they certainly have the game.