I purchased a hunt at the SCI convention in 2009 with Shingani Safaris. The hunt was for buffalo and was to take place in the Binga area. My friend and I also wanted Sable. Riaan Vosloo said this was no problem. We also paid for a 1 on 1 hunt. Riaan also told me that he would be my PH on the hunt.
We bought tickets to Vic Falls and 12 hours before we were to leave the states I get an email saying change of plans, picking you up in Joburg!!!!!!!!
We get to Joburg and are met by a young ph and taken to Shingani's South African headquarters. I find out Riaan has two other buffalo hunters and has already left with them for Zimbabwe. The next morning we leave and drive to the border. Riaan Vosloo has a guy meet us to help obtain gun permits. Long story short we get strong armed out of $200 per gun, having 2 guns, I'm out $400 and also the $500 airline ticket to Vic Falls. A bad start! Riaan's response is "oh that's to bad"
After driving for hours looking for the camp we arrive.
Riaan is pretty cold to us.
We find out he has two guys on our hunt and now it is a 2 on 1 hunt. Riaan says we'll have our buffalo and be out of here in 3-5 days????? What about Sable?
Well now we are in the Crooks (perfect name for this hunt) corner area and there are no Sable here. Riaans clients kill the first 2 buffalo they saw and left with him the 2nd day of the hunt. One is a tiny inmature bull. I shot a nice bull the 2nd day (only buffalo I saw in 5 days) and my friend finally saw a bull the 5th day and shot it.
Riaan also left with the only 4x4 truck and we were left with a 2 wheel drive. Of course we were stuck every day. Also the drinking water in camp ran out after day 3! We had to boil water and had only 2 20 ounce bottle to drink a day! Mind you it was well over a hundred degrees every day!
My dream hunt wasn't at all what I had hoped it would be and as of yet, I still have never seen my trophy. I was told it was delivered to the dip and pack place last October, but found out today that was just another one of Riaan's lies!
So after all that, I end up with no buffalo!

The other part of this story is Riaan was the PH for the other two hunters and had no licenced Zimbabwean PH or Outfitter with them. I understand this is illegal! This hunt was a total train wreck!

We left Zimbabwe and returned to SA and hunted a few days. I took a kudu and bushbuck and my friend a kudu and 14 inch warthog! Our capes and skins were unmountable when we got them and my friends huge warthog wasn't in the crate! He contacted Shingani Safaris but was told they would look into it. You guessed it, no reply!


Best advice is steer clear of Riaan Vosloo and Shingani Safaris!

Seems like he changed gears from Binga to Sengwe after you booked. Binga is a really poor area these days, you would probably not have gotten your buff, so perhaps this was for the best. However the rest of it still sucks ... double booking, no water, typical SA operator quasi-legal hunt, no trophies, no Sable (none in Binga either). Hopefully you didn't tip them, and surely they didn't have the balls to charge you a "transfer fee" to drive you up there, after you paid for a flight to Vic Falls.

Sorry to hear about your 1st hunt to Africa being a complete mess up.. To get straight to the point. Why can't the South African operators stay out of our country when it comes to hunting big game? If anyone books with a South African operator and is hunting anywhere else other than South Africa, straight away they should start smelling a rat!! 90% of the SA operators who hunt Zimbabwe are here hunting illegally, hence not getting your trophies out of Zimbabwe. Now I see a lot of SA operators starting to hunt our National Parks. Wonder how they would feel if we went into Kruger Park with our hunters? At the end of the day it is a NATIONAL PARK!and not a Safari area. At the end of the day we are supposed to be "Professional Hunters" looking after the welfare of the wildlife. It seems this is no longer the case. For some!

Well said Craig , glad to see another Zim PH on AR . maybe now we are all on the same page we can put a stop to the illegal SA operators, .

It's just the truth.. It will have to start with the paying hunters to see that it's just not right to come and hunt in Zimbabwe National parks or anywhere else for that matter with SA operators. Unless it is a legal hunt. Not quite sure what it will take to keep them out!

Hi craig

Hey Butch, nice to hear from you?? would like to catch up??

Fully agree with Craig and Ross J.
Booking a hunt in Zimbabwe with any S.A operator always is a mistake and/or a trap.

for those who don't know craig robinson - he has been an active PH in zim for several years now. his outfit is called sango safaris. a most welcome addition to the boards

Thank you Butch,
Times have changed some what since the land grab? still keeping my head above water.

craig - sent you a PM

Hi butch, No luck with PM!

go up to the top of the post in the blue - select go then personal zone - then click on private messages

Vosloo and Shingani Safaris are some of the number one poachers in Zim. If u book with them or any other SA operator to hunt in Zimbabwe beware. If you want to hunt Zim, BOOK WITH A REPUTABLE ZIMBABWEAN not a bunch of poachers!!

Any resolution or solution yet?

Nothing solved yet. I was sent a photo of my buffalo by Matabeland Taxidermy a couple weeks ago. Now they say they have no paperwork and are waiting on Riaan's guy to get it to them. From the look of the photo, my buffalo is in pretty rough shape, and still needs to be boiled.
Hope to see it here someday!

quote:

Originally posted by Thomas Taxidermy:
Nothing solved yet. I was sent a photo of my buffalo by Matabeland Taxidermy a couple weeks ago. Now they say they have no paperwork and are waiting on Riaan's guy to get it to them. From the look of the photo, my buffalo is in pretty rough shape, and still needs to be boiled.
Hope to see it here someday!

Thats why it is good to post and check hunts on the www.HuntingReport.com
I see he only has one report from 08, please add yours.

report posted!

Two years ago today and still no paperwork for my buffalo! I'm told now it is pretty much hopeless! Not sure how Vosloo is able to stay in business. Avoid this crook like the plaque!

Have you informed the South African hunters association PHASA ? My bet is he is not even a member

quote:

Originally posted by chinanga:
Have you informed the South African hunters association PHASA ? My bet is he is not even a member

The hunt took place in Zim & the website says the company are based there.

However, even if he is a member, PHASA won't be able to do anything because the hunt took place in Zim.

Better to contact the ZPHA & see if they can help.

shark shit

quote:

Originally posted by Craig Robinson:
Sorry to hear about your 1st hunt to Africa being a complete mess up.. To get straight to the point. Why can't the South African operators stay out of our country when it comes to hunting big game? If anyone books with a South African operator and is hunting anywhere else other than South Africa, straight away they should start smelling a rat!! 90% of the SA operators who hunt Zimbabwe are here hunting illegally, hence not getting your trophies out of Zimbabwe. Now I see a lot of SA operators starting to hunt our National Parks. Wonder how they would feel if we went into Kruger Park with our hunters? At the end of the day it is a NATIONAL PARK!and not a Safari area. At the end of the day we are supposed to be "Professional Hunters" looking after the welfare of the wildlife. It seems this is no longer the case. For some!

Craig,

It seems the rogue South African PHs who hunt Zimbabwe are normally accompanied by crooked PHs from Zimbabwe.

Or at least that has been my impression.

quote:

Originally posted by Craig Robinson:
Sorry to hear about your 1st hunt to Africa being a complete mess up.. To get straight to the point. Why can't the South African operators stay out of our country when it comes to hunting big game? If anyone books with a South African operator and is hunting anywhere else other than South Africa, straight away they should start smelling a rat!! 90% of the SA operators who hunt Zimbabwe are here hunting illegally, hence not getting your trophies out of Zimbabwe. Now I see a lot of SA operators starting to hunt our National Parks. Wonder how they would feel if we went into Kruger Park with our hunters? At the end of the day it is a NATIONAL PARK!and not a Safari area. At the end of the day we are supposed to be "Professional Hunters" looking after the welfare of the wildlife. It seems this is no longer the case. For some!

Craig,

Perhaps you could tell us where you get that figure of 90% please?..... To the best of my knowledge no-one has ever even tried to count the number of illegal hunts in any African country (let alone in Zimbabwe of all places!) & quite honestly, I fail to see how anyone could get such data together (simply because they occur under the radar), let alone correlate it to see what percentage of said dodgy (under the radar) hunts involved South Africans.

Moving on, let's not forget that there are plenty of Zimbo PHs, including very well known ones that go outside their own country to guide safaris. Some/many/most of those hunts are perfectly legitimate and use a locally licenced PH on a cover hunting agreement and such hunts are no less legitimate when a SA PH goes to Zim & uses a Zim PH to cover hunt. Some of these hunts are also conducted illegally & without a locally licenced PH & these are equally wrong as when the roles are reversed & in other cases the PH has a licence for that country. (more on that one later)....... but let's not forget that what's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander in all cases.

Let's also remember that for every dodgy hunt conducted by an external PH in Zimbabwe, there has to be at least one Zimbabwean involved as well so let's also try to nail those bastards.

Let's also remember that an awful lot of PHs from a variety of countries often operate perfectly legally in other African countries.... Tanzania is a good example. You can walk into the Seacliff any day of the season and the majority of the PHs you'll find in there will be non Tanzanians and the vast majority will have Tz PH licences, so to suggest that "If anyone books with a South African operator and is hunting anywhere else other than South Africa, straight away they should start smelling a rat!!" is quite honestly, utter bollocks!

Regarding your comment " Now I see a lot of SA operators starting to hunt our National Parks. Wonder how they would feel if we went into Kruger Park with our hunters? At the end of the day it is a NATIONAL PARK!and not a Safari area. At the end of the day we are supposed to be "Professional Hunters" looking after the welfare of the wildlife. It seems this is no longer the case. For some!"

A perusal of the hunts offered forum would show you where several Zim PHs have also offered such hunts (either directly or through an unknowing/dumb as a sack of spanners agent) but y'know, if the Zim Game Dept did THEIR job then no hunters would get into the park would they?. (I do however appreciate there are very good arguments for allowing hunts in NPs but that's a different kettle of fish). If Zimbabwe has a problem with illegal happenings in their NPs the people to put it right are those who are supposed to look after the NPs.

I'm all for getting all the crooks & fly by night bastards out of the industry (Africa wide) but let's not throw the baby out with the bath water huh!

Steve

Great post i think you hit the nail on the head.
We as South African ph and outfitters would love to get the bad apples out of the system but we must remember its not just the SA guys every african country have shady ph.

Then I must say i have the most utter respect for the zim ph and there system guys go on yo doing good and if there is anyway i can help get some shady guys out the system let me know.

Luan