I was paging through the latest African Indaba newsletter and noticed this short article, it sounds interesting to say the least !!

Cheers, Peter
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Zimbabwe

The Chewore North Concession was auctioned at a record setting price of US$5.6 Million (actually 14.6 billion Z$ or 56 million Z$ at the official rate). The bidder also has to pay US$110,000 concession fee per year and trophy fees. Based on past years quotas the new owner will pay about US$22,000 for a buffalo and US$50,000 for an elephant! The successful bidder is said to be an unknown motor mechanic turned black market fuel and diamond dealer without connections to professional hunting. Experts put a realistic price for Chewore North at approx. US$1.2 million; the one serious contender opted out at US$1.2 million. Controversial Zimbabwean business tycoon Billy Rautenbach was the second highest bidder with US$5 million. Rautenbach, who is banned from traveling to most countries in the world, seems to have used Chewore North in the past for exclusive family holidays and for entertaining important clients. There is speculation that the original deal may flounder, but Rautenbach is reported to have indicated that his maximum price would now be 1.4 million dollars.

And Rautenbach got it. At a good price- especially as he got a bank loan at 50% P.a. intrest- which in a country where inflation is now over 2000% p.a. means he will actually pay about half a million US at the most

Was there noone else able to come up with the same plan?

I know nothing about Rautenbach but if he is banned form travelling to most countries, is that not enough to prevent him from taking part in the auction? I'm not being naive just curious if such actions were considered....

Mitch

Getting a soft loan is dependant on the right friends . Being Banned from traveling to the US or Europe is useful in local politics. You Also need a big pair of (b***s) since you fall out of favour and that loan changes to 50% per day.

The fact that both the US and the EU have banned the importation of stolen goods (including hunting trophies), doesn't stop the Zim government issuing export documents for the same stolen goods or trophies.