Zimbabwe: Wildlife Players Siphon Millions

MAJOR players in Zimbabwe's wildlife industry, with a million hectares of conservancy estates distributed among only a handful of them, are reportedly prejudicing the country out of millions of United States dollars by under-declaring their hunting proceeds while siphoning huge sums into off-shore accounts.

It emerged last week that the operators - most of whom have reportedly rejected Government's indigenisation policy - could also be using their private aircraft to export animal trophies illegally.

Out of the seven conservancies spread in parts of the country, four owners have reportedly agreed to partner with indigenous players, although with some hostility, while three have totally refused to recognise the Government's indigenisation drive that forces them to give up 51 percent ownership to locals.

The Parks and Wildlife Management Authority has since suspended the issuing of hunting quotas in most parts until the indigenisation concept is fully embraced.

Parks director Mr Vitalis Chadenga has confirmed the new procedures regarding the issuing of quotas and the existence of loopholes that are believed to lead to the trophies being smuggled out of the country in private planes.

"Trophy return forms are filled and submitted to local banks. The forms detail the amount of animals hunted and the amount of money realised.

"Although our staff verifies the hunts, we do not police airstrips."

The conservancy operators are believed to be raking in millions of dollars, but remitting far less to the Government.

A source within the system said hunts were conducted over 21 days with operators each getting an average of US$52 000 daily. Trophy fees and other costs are payable on the conclusion of the hunt.

Of the funds raised, Government is entitled to 6 percent while the Parks Authority gets 2 percent for a particular amount of trophies exported.

Reports, however, indicate that some operators were under-declaring proceeds. Although they got a substantial number of hunts, they declared low figures. They then pushed large sums of money realised from the hunts into offshore accounts before making withdrawals from selected banks outside the country. Hunting rates are pegged at US$2 500, US$1 500, US$1 200 for elephants, buffaloes and leopards each day, respectively.

It costs US$20 000 to kill a lion; US$12 000 a bull elephant; US$4 000 a hippopotamus, US$5 000 a crocodile and US$2 700 a cheetah.

Zebras attract US$1 000; waterbuck US$1 800 and bush-buck US$1 000. A hunter will part with between US$400 and US$1 000 to kill a hyena, impalas, wildebeest and warthogs.

The cheapest hunt is a baboon, which attracts a fee of US$60.

Conservancy operators also rake in additional funds from a US$300 bird licence fee as well as dipping and trophy packing fees that are pegged at US$800 for less than 10 trophies per shipment.

It costs US$1 000 to ship at least 10 trophies and US$1 500 for 15 trophies. Transfer fees are in the region of US$600 per vehicle while the minimum air charter fee is US$1 500.It is also believed that clients pay a non-refundable deposit of 50 percent of their daily hunting rates into the operators' offshore accounts to confirm booking more than two months before the hunt. While some locals were granted leases by the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources Management in terms of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act to join the industry, the wildlife players were reportedly reluctant to share the lucrative business with them.

The Act advocates 51 percent shareholding for indigenous Zimbabweans in foreign-owned businesses.

Mr Chadenga confirmed that there were disagreements between new beneficiaries and the operators.

"Government has put in place the wildlife-based land reform policy. However, there has been noticeable resistance by existing farmers to work with new beneficiaries," he said.

"Some farms are at various stages of 'indigenising'. We expect to see existing farmers and new farmers working together. They should come up with workable plans."

Among those reportedly at the forefront of resisting indigenisation are operators in Sabe Valley, Bubi and Malilangwe conservancies. Chiredzi, Bubiana, Midlands Black Rhino and Gwayi are, on the other hand, understood to be at various stages of indigenisation although marked with reluctance from the operators.

The Masvingo administration has since resolved, following a meeting with Government, to support the suspension of the issuance of new hunting permits until new and resident conservancy owners come up with joint applications.

Parks chairman Mr George Pangeti emphasised that new permits will only be issued to those in clear working partnerships with locals.

This Gov't is a plague and no better than Somali pirates. Where in the hell do they get these fees? Most of these indigenous people have less common sense than a Baboon, and a lot less wary for sure. If they had any sense, they would have had a civil war long ago that ousted the dictator they live under.

don't think i have ever seen so much bullshit in 1 post in my life. $2500/day to hunt elephant? $20,000 trophy fee for lion? and i wonder why the safari operators are reluctant to give away 51% ownership in the company THAT THEY BUILT!!! i would be reluctant to give over half of my business to a bunch of minimally entitled primates too. people who are too stupid to get rid of a 30 year dictator who has bankrupted their country and left them starving don't deserve 51% of anything. folks in Egypt managed to pull it off.

So what does this mean? Don't hunt in Zimbabwe anymore because the government is about to F-up the one last thing they haven't yet? Or prices will go through the roof?

It means that the head of the secret police and the head of parks and SCI's Africa rep (George Pangeti who co-incidently happens to be chairman of the parks board and a former director of OOA) all want a slice of the three functioning concervancies and aim to enforce their 'cut' by refusing to stamp the TR2 form which authorises the hunt.

Government has always known what the real figures are and there are a few in parks with some understanding of the industry...but not many. There is also almost no understanding of how much it costs to run a safari despite a five year flirt with their 'own' company operating in Matetsi Unit 5. They tried selling the hunts in Unit five on their own, failed and bought in a US Agent. Then they had to bring in better PH's until a few of the parks guys had enough experience, then they had to learn to run a camp and at the end of the day, management by committee was so inefficient that they failed to make a proffit. The handful of officers involved with mugundumu safaris now understand the costs and complexities but head office doesn't.

Parks have also failed to realise that the actual baseline cost for a safari have gone up 80-100% in US$ terms in the last two years. The change over to a US$ economy has had many advantages but it has pushed operating costs right up and cut operator proffit margins significantly.

Lastly parks have a legal basis to force operators to increase their prices uniformly accross the country. They haven't attempted to use it because it would affect the black safari operators who hold most of the parks concessions - and they are squeeling alreeady about falling income ...and they all have hotlines to the minister or the president! (If they didn't they wouldn't have the concessions). A typical Zimbabwe mess which will mostly be solved by lining the pocket of the cleark with the authority to register the hunts and stamp the TR2 form rather than taking a leach into partnership....although for many in Save, the operator is also the primary PH...and company proffits can be 0 quite easily and I for one am happy to share 51% of 0$

The biggest single issue with the 51% shareholding saga, is that not only does Government want to force owners to GIVE away 51% of their company, they intend on forcing the current owners to give 51% to partners that THEY(government) nominate. In one case, an owner negotiated a 51% shareholding with an Indigenous Black Zimbabwean . Both Parties were happy. Government however stated that this was not acceptable as the new black partner was not allocated by government and therefore the white owner was only entitled to sell 51% of his share. 51% of the business already belonged to Goverment to allocate to who they wished.

This is purely and simply a second attempt at a land grab. They have all but destroyed the farming infrastructure and now need another golden apple to reward their cronies with.

No surprises here. Nothing short of a change of culture (rather than leadership) will give these magnificent countries a chance.

Probably several generations before these guys sort their shit out and wake up to the inherent stupidity of short term thinking but unreconstructed thievery is in their blood.

One of my closest friends moved to Kenya in '95 stating, "the locals are just the same as us, all they need is education". Her husband and I kept out views to ourselves but within twelve months she was singing from a rather different libretto. Last year a guy who had worked for her for over a decade found the house payroll envelope in the car, stole 260,000 Ksh and did not turn up for work the next day. When the other staff asked to be paid they were told B.... had stolen their cash and to track him down and take it up with him. They did so with some relish. Not only did the stupid ass end up being beaten to within an inch of his life, he obviously lost his long term employer as well as any chance of finding a new job of similar worth and has zero cash to show for it. This is not uncommon and often worse, involving the murder of employers and/or other staff.

A bunch of Ngong youths once thought they were going to hit me with rungus and steal the quad bike. The wrinkle in their plan was that they made it so obvious disagreeing about how to pull it off that the biggest two of them were flattened before getting their act together and the others thought better of it.

No need even to mention the post election madness. It is painful to see such mind blowingly beautiful and promising countries in Africa being repeatedly wrecked by the locals and it is only going to end one way.

Sorry for the winge but get your hunting in while you can.

quote:

Originally posted by Milo Shanghai:
No surprises here. Nothing short of a change of culture (rather than leadership) will give these magnificent countries a chance.

Probably several generations before these guys sort their shit out and wake up to the inherent stupidity of short term thinking but unreconstructed thievery is in their blood.

One of my closest friends moved to Kenya in '95 stating, "the locals are just the same as us, all they need is education". Her husband and I kept out views to ourselves but within twelve months she was singing from a rather different libretto. Last year a guy who had worked for her for over a decade found the house payroll envelope in the car, stole 260,000 Ksh and did not turn up for work the next day. When the other staff asked to be paid they were told B.... had stolen their cash and to track him down and take it up with him. They did so with some relish. Not only did the stupid ass end up being beaten to within an inch of his life, he obviously lost his long term employer as well as any chance of finding a new job of similar worth and has zero cash to show for it. This is not uncommon and often worse, involving the murder of employers and/or other staff.

A bunch of Ngong youths once thought they were going to hit me with rungus and steal the quad bike. The wrinkle in their plan was that they made it so obvious disagreeing about how to pull it off that the biggest two of them were flattened before getting their act together and the others thought better of it.

No need even to mention the post election madness. It is painful to see such mind blowingly beautiful and promising countries in Africa being repeatedly wrecked by the locals and it is only going to end one way.

Sorry for the winge but get your hunting in while you can.

Where was this again? Washington DC?

Is it really the same everywhere? Do the lazy fat frogs always try and steal from those who actually get up in the morning and try to make the world work? I am not well traveled so only know that it happens here....A pox on those fat frogs!

quote:

Originally posted by David Hulme:
Is it really the same everywhere? Do the lazy fat frogs always try and steal from those who actually get up in the morning and try to make the world work? I am not well traveled so only know that it happens here....A pox on those fat frogs!

In one way or another; yes. It's part of human nature and how much it shows in individuals varies, and how much govenment allows/encourages it varies by country.

What about the clients who have booked hunts in these conservancies for this year ... there is no quota according to this article.

(Save, Lemco/Bubye being the two main "holdouts").

There is only one way out of this dilemma. The "new partners" must contribute new land equal to the value of the shares they want. In other words, double the size of my conservancy, and then you can have a cut.

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
It means that the head of the secret police and the head of parks and SCI's Africa rep (George Pangeti who co-incidently happens to be chairman of the parks board and a former director of OOA) all want a slice of the three functioning concervancies and aim to enforce their 'cut' by refusing to stamp the TR2 form which authorises the hunt.

Government has always known what the real figures are and there are a few in parks with some understanding of the industry...but not many. There is also almost no understanding of how much it costs to run a safari despite a five year flirt with their 'own' company operating in Matetsi Unit 5. They tried selling the hunts in Unit five on their own, failed and bought in a US Agent. Then they had to bring in better PH's until a few of the parks guys had enough experience, then they had to learn to run a camp and at the end of the day, management by committee was so inefficient that they failed to make a proffit. The handful of officers involved with mugundumu safaris now understand the costs and complexities but head office doesn't.

Parks have also failed to realise that the actual baseline cost for a safari have gone up 80-100% in US$ terms in the last two years. The change over to a US$ economy has had many advantages but it has pushed operating costs right up and cut operator proffit margins significantly.

Lastly parks have a legal basis to force operators to increase their prices uniformly accross the country. They haven't attempted to use it because it would affect the black safari operators who hold most of the parks concessions - and they are squeeling alreeady about falling income ...and they all have hotlines to the minister or the president! (If they didn't they wouldn't have the concessions). A typical Zimbabwe mess which will mostly be solved by lining the pocket of the cleark with the authority to register the hunts and stamp the TR2 form rather than taking a leach into partnership....although for many in Save, the operator is also the primary PH...and company proffits can be 0 quite easily and I for one am happy to share 51% of 0$

interesting that SCI's Africa rep is a former 0oA director and now also heads the Parks board- and is at the forefront of stealing Save, etc. from its rightful owners.re-read the last line of Alan's post above.

quote:

Originally posted by Ganyana:
It means that the head of the secret police and the head of parks and SCI's Africa rep (George Pangeti who co-incidently happens to be chairman of the parks board and a former director of OOA) all want a slice of the three functioning concervancies and aim to enforce their 'cut' by refusing to stamp the TR2 form which authorises the hunt.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:interesting that SCI's Africa rep is a former 0oA director and now also heads the Parks board- and is at the forefront of stealing Save, etc. from its rightful owners.re-read the last line of Alan's post above.

Yes, and it is even more interesting how all these little details fit together, isn't it?

You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to add two plus two and get four.

quote:

Originally posted by Russ Gould:

There is only one way out of this dilemma. The "new partners" must contribute new land equal to the value of the shares they want. In other words, double the size of my conservancy, and then you can have a cut.

Russ , with all due respect, every possible "sensible" approach has been tried with regards to this. There are some extremely highly thought of lawyers and advocates working on the legalities. You must remember however that this is not about legality. Legal or not, no one is held accountable and certainly,in this case, no one enforces the law including SADC and the outside world.

It's too bad you don't have such a thing as a "class action" suit in Zim. It seems the gov't only upholds the law when it suits them (as in prosecuting white people in order to shake them down, or the opposition in order to shut them up).

It's precisely this disregard for the rule of law that turns off potential investors ... including me. I would have invested in Zim in a heartbeat if I thought that property rights would be protected. However, Zim has become one huge shakedown. At every opportunity, someone either wants money to get something done, or they are angling to grab your money by force. From little things (like counting your ammo and then putting the squeeze on you if you can't account for it all) to big things (like demanding 51% "indigenous" ownership of any profitable enterprise), it all adds up to a pit of vipers that one should avoid.

And this disease has now infected every corner of officialdom, so I doubt it will disappear once Mugabe goes. It becomes a way of life, something to preserve. Like weeds, you can't root it out without burning it all down to the ground.

Thus my decision: my investment dollars are Botswana bound. Sadly, I see no future for Zim anymore. And as far as the conservancies go, they are going to keep taking until there is nothing to take.

Russ,

You paint a very gloomy picture and if I wasn't on the ground witnessing everything going on here I would be very glum after reading your post...

Corruption is rife, throughout Africa, and as I'm told by others, throughout the world. Yes, we have major problems here in Zim, and yes there are a group of thieves who are on a stealing rampage, but we are not the first African country to experience this sort of criminal activity. History tells us that African countries crumble, and then start trying to get back on track. Whether they ever do (will) or not is the question, but I don't mind hanging around to find out! Zim is in the spotlight now because it used to run so much more efficiently than the rest of the continent and now it is headed where the rest have already been, and where most still are...

It is true that I own nothing here, but I have invested my whole life in this country, and I would have it no other way. We have a major task in trying to sort out Zim, but there is more than enough good here to warrant the effort. People think I've lost the plot when, after watching or reading the news, I comment that I reckon we live in the safest country in the world...I know that I haven't lost the plot, yet...

There are still many positives to work on here, and one thing I've discovered is that what is happening on the ground is most often not what is being reported. Now, I am not trying to play down what has happened on the farms and the country in general over the last decade, or what is happening to the conservancies now. These property grabs are a crime against humanity and one day they will be recognized in that light, but for the time being each guy has to do what he has to do, nobody can help anybody who is in the firing line. I salute those who have held out without making dirty deals. The wheel will turn, it always does.

Anyway, blah blah - my roots are deep here and I love this country, so that's where the above comes from. I can't see it from a business point of view because I am not into business, but I think I can see it from a landowner's point of view, having lived and worked with many of them, before, whilst and after they lost everything....Having loved their land probably as much as they do. You see, although I don't own an acre, I feel like the whole of Zim belongs to me! Oops, sounding a little like someone else right there...

Of course it would not be a good plan to invest in Zim at this time - even a caveman who's not into business (me) knows that! But stick with us guys, things will come right and Zimbabwe will bounce back one day. Then, Russ, when you are super rich from the wise investment you made in Botswana and have millions to chuck around, you can rethink Zim!

I hope you are well Russ, Cheers, Dave