One of my relatives was due to drive from SA through Zimbabwe to Zambia today Africa time but she has heard on the 1pm news that there is sh.t in Zims so now she will have to go up through Botswana. It is a bit of a longer journey.

Apparantly there have been some stoning and overturning of cars on the road between Beit Bridge and Bulawayoo, BB and Musvinga, Bulawayo and Vic Falls, they are demostrating as to no food and housing !!!

Peter

Hi Peter, Hope all is well with you. Do you think Zimbabwe is on the verge of another civil war? Things seem to go from bad to worse there pretty quickly. Hope your relative stays safe! Take Care

There was supposed to be a 2 day organized stayaway and it was the opening of parliament

This is bad news indeed... But we all know it's all gonna blow up sooner or later. I wonder how many AR members are over there at the moment.

Regards

Elmo

I sure did not want to hear that kind of news..One of us is there now on safari..
I will hope everything is safe with Jorge right now and for the rest of his safari...

Mike

I am leaving for the Save Valley on Monday to hunt with Buzz Charlton. Will give you guys a report when I get back. Hell, the Afrikaners blew up something in the RSA when I was there in '94 right after the elections. Makes the trip an adventure!

quote:

Originally posted by bwanamrm:
I am leaving for the Save Valley on Monday to hunt with Buzz Charlton. Will give you guys a report when I get back. Hell, the Afrikaners blew up something in the RSA when I was there in '94 right after the elections. Makes the trip an adventure!

Holy Smoke

You guys from Texas are tougher than us OLD RHODESIANS were ....

Have a wonderful trip, if you happin to see Robert get his GPS coordinates so I can send him a flying telegram

Peter

Hell, Peter...I've paid my money and I'll take my chances!

As Lucky Ned Pepper said in True Grit..."that's bold talk for a one-eyed fat man!"

Actually all is fairly quiet. The stay away was a flop- as usual.

Honestly, I don't know what it will take to get people to actually ACT. There is a serious shortage of coke- I live on the stuff and may have to emigrate if they don't solve the problem soon - there is also no beer! The tax department closed the company that makes the bottle tops and their is not enough hard cash to import any so... no beer.

There is a major shortage of fuel. Haven't seen deisel on sale for two weeks now and petrol arrives occasionally and the queue is already 500 cars long by the time you hear about it.

In fact, the government is doing a better job of enforcing the stay away with the fuel shortage than the oposition party by calling for it!

The media has reported in detail on the destruction of homes and local markets...all true. The pluss side is that in the last two weeks there has not been a single burglary of a house in Harare, nore a single theaft of an old car (new cars destined for mozambique or the congo are still going but the crooks who steal those are well drilled, polite and don't want blood on the upholstry. Those stealing old cars like my wife and I drive are much less refined and as the car is to be broken for spares don't worry about a bit of blood)

So, in two weeks, 1 million people deprived of homes and livelyhoods and and they cannot even co-ordinate a stayaway let alone a proper strike with roads blocked and burning tyres.

Yes, In matebeleland the odd government vehicle has been trashed and the kids are now shooting stones at the widscrenes with catapaults, but the targets are government vehicles and the police. Unfortunately for us all, the Ndebele and Shangaan and associated maHoli peoples make up only 21% of the population. White Rhodesians less than 2/10 of 1% (arround 20,000 (we have about 10,000 serb imagrants who might loose their temper and act long before anybody else...)

And the rest of the population are Shona, Tswana and Batonka.

Ndebele saying - why to the Tswana not live in trees? - they are too lazy to climb.

Shona? The word is a coruption of Mswina - ie a person who is too usless to enslave. The ndebele rounded up people they defeated in war as slaves to grow crops and herd their cattle - they are called maHoli. The Shona though were to usless to be worth taking as slaves- Maswina.

And the Tonks? Appart from an 85% adult HIV infection rate, they try and stay stoned on dope as much as possible. They have always been the loosers and they were never numerous and their numbers have been steadily declining.

So, whatsgoing to happen? Nothing until GW wants the platinum, doesn't want us shipping uranium to unfriendly nations, Ian Khama gets tired of being described as lower than pigs and dogs...

This is Africa and nothing hapens very quickly at the best of times

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
White Rhodesians less than 2/10 of 1% (arround 20,000 (we have about 10,000 serb imagrants who might loose their temper and act long before anybody else...)

When did the serbs immigrate? New to me..

Boha

Ganyana,

you are cheerful today!

No beer? Getting people to act may not be that far off.

Boha

From arround 1990 to 1995 we had a massive influx of people from yugoslavia. Mostly serbs, but a fair percentage of Croats as well. Mostly professionals of one sort or another - doctors, architects, computor techs, etc and their families. Bob was still sane enough in those days to recognise that the country needed hard working people - and preferably people who would stay and develop the country instead of wanting to send money etc "home". Also, they had no conections to britain or any links to the former Rhodesian government- perfect immigrant group.

We had initial trouble at the shooting club between serbs and croats with agro fliers going up but now both groups agree that the targets look like bosnians... and they leave each other alone. As a rule they are all gun crazy but very few are interested in formalised shooting sports.

Pretty massive influx; 10000 compared to 20000 Rhodesians.
Should one learn how to ask "is that a 40" bull?" in serbocroatian?

Boha

Reassurance On Zimbabwe....
(posted June 10, 2005)

There have been some scary headlines recently about a crackdown in Zimbabwe on shanty dwellers and so-called dissidents. As a result, I've received a trickle of phone calls from booked subscribers wondering if they should cancel upcoming safaris to this country. My verdict is no. If you were comfortable with the overall security situation in Zimbabwe before the current turmoil, there is no reason to lose heart now.

I gained that reassuring view by speaking directly with US Embassy officials in Harare who have given me the straight scoop in the past. "We have not changed our travel warning," is the way it was put to me. "There is essentially no new threat to travelers that wasn't there before." You can read the current Zimbabwe Travel Warning by clicking on the hyperlink at the end of this report.

My green light for safaris does not mean I am not concerned about the overall trend in Zimbabwe. Indeed, the country is in an economic tailspin. Fuel and food are in short supply. Fuel is particularly scarce, and booked clients need to be sure their operators have enough on hand. A new concern now is the eventual impact of the current crackdown on shantytowns and so-called dissidents. Embassy officials told us an estimated 120,000 people have been left homeless and penniless by the crackdown, and most of those people are leaving the cities for rural areas. Certainly, this influx of people is going to lead to an increase in poaching. More worrisome is the question whether they will eventually turn to crime to survive.

I am going to continue to watch the situation closely in Zimbabwe, and I'll issue an immediate bulletin if I believe things are going off the rails over there. Right now, I don't believe that is happening. - Don Causey, Editor/Publisher.

Ganyana,
What is the true racial mix today in Zim.? 10,000 Serbs is a lot compared to 20,000 Rhodies, I hear now there is quite a few chinese it is obvious robber bob wants to make Rhodesians dissappear .Serbs are here in Australia too in much larger numbers and you are right they like thei guns but do not compete in shooting sports.

Steve

No BEER, Ganyana did I hear you right, no freaking BEER! That's it. Call it off...I want a refund......a Castle to cut the dust when a man gets off the 'cruiser after a hard day's trek is one of the little things I look forward to the most. No bloody beer! Damn ol' Bob's soul!

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
.....there is also no beer! ... no beer.

Zim has always been my favorite hunting destination.....but, I never thought it could get this bad. Heaven help us all.

I think the 'luxury' outfits might be trucking their own beer in, as well as diesel, etc etc etc.

US$$$ talk. But what a fiasco.

When we were in the Harare airport in 2003 waiting for our flight to JNB, about one third of the other passengers in the airport were Chinese. Part of Bob's "Look East Policy". Overall there were very few people in the airport.

Regards,

Terry

Some Chinese government owned companies are getting into mining in Zim and other part of Africa.

Gentlemen (and ladies too)

Part of the reason why, when I am asked to recomend an operator or help a member book a hunt I Always recomend one of the bigger operations. We have no fuel- but I know Bill Bedford (ingwe safaris ) laid in a stock of 60,000 l (1800US Gal) just before the shortage hit. It takes capital to a) buy the storage taks b) buy that quantity of fuel. Most of the other big operators did the same.

For the hunt with PWN I laid in a stock of Petrol as IO knew trouble was brewing- It wasn't enough and I had to buy some over priced black market fuel to get back to town...

PWN and brother were limmited to one coke a day...All I could buy. The big operators are flying in cans of coke and beer from South Africa - Hunter Jim - you wanted to know where your 750 a day goes? Cokes cost effectively US$1.50 a can now.

etc. etc.

Sure- this is all cyclic- we have been here before- Harare has power cuts sheduled for two evenings a week- and it is winter,

but in two months with increasing unrest, thabo will spend US aid money on buying bob fuel and forgive us (again) for not paying Escom for the electrisity and we will be back to normal!

What? No Coke in Zim? That will do more to stop Americans coming over there then any amount of unrest. I can handle a little danger but "No Coke?" Don't think I can handle that.

465H&H

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana: Cokes cost effectively US$1.50 a can now.

Have you ever bought a coke at a movie theatre in the US?