SA Hunters arrested in Zimbabwe

Date: July 2003

Source:CFU - Matabeleland Branch (SW Africa website)

Author: Anon

A party of twelve South African hunters belonging to a Christian organisation were arrested in Zimbabwe on Friday last week for illegal hunting on listed properties in West Nicholson, Matabeleland South. The eight adult men and four teenagers were stopped at a police roadblock outside Beit Bridge town on their way to the close by South African border. They had in their possession a quantity of meat allegedly meant for exportation from Zimbabwe, a country that is currently riddled with one of the worst foot and mouth disease outbreaks in its history.

The teenagers were released, but seven of the eight men spent a night in police holding cells in West Nicholson, and the eighth was kept for two nights while police investigated his connection to the slaughter of a black rhino and two elephants four weeks earlier in the same area. He was released on Sunday after a lawyer was brought in from South Africa. Pressure to release the men and drop charges was laid on the investigating police officers by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Abednigo Ncube, a politician from Gwanda, and himself a beneficiary of a farm in the district. The South African High Commissioner in Harare was informed of the situation.

Police were alerted to the activities of the hunters on Chipizi Farm by a neighbouring farmer who, after hearing shots from a heavy-calibre weapon in the area, found the carcass of a freshly killed eland with only its hind legs removed. Subsequent police investigations revealed that the South Africans had been hunting on Chipizi Farm, whose owner has been evicted. The hunt took place with authority from the local Rural District Council, under the auspices of the resident settlers and so-called professional hunter, Ronnie Sparrow.

Officials from the Hunting Licence Section of the Department of National Parks and Wildlife Management in Harare confirmed that Mr Sparrow is not licensed with them as a professional hunter in this country. Nor is he a member of the Zimbabwe Association of Tour and Safari Operators (ZATSO), an organisation to which most Zimbabwean professional hunters belong.

Investigating officers in West Nicholson said that South African professional hunter Dwayne van Zyl was authorised by Mr Sparrow (as the "licensed hunter" in charge) to conduct the hunt on his behalf, against National Parks regulations. Mr van Zyl is wanted for questioning by the Zimbabwean police regarding the slaughter of a black rhino and two elephants in the Bubiyana Conservancy last month, as he is thought to have been in the area at the time of the killings.

Chipizi Farm, like its neighbour, is listed for compulsory acquisition as part of Zimbabwe's controversial and notorious Land Acquisition exercise. The Zimbabwean government has taken over hundreds of farms illegally by fast-tracking the process, evicting bona fide owners and ordering thousands of communal people to settle on properties listed for acquisition without due regard to the law.

The Land Acquisition Act provides that owners may object to the acquisition of their properties in the Administrative Court, and the court must confirm the acquisition of the property before it is handed over for resettlement. Until such confirmation is made, the appropriate authority over the wildlife rests with the title deed holder of the land on which the animals reside.

However, throughout the country settlers and local District Councils have claimed the wildlife resources on listed properties for themselves, and are selling it off to the first unscrupulous buyer that comes along. Numerous South African hunters have been fingered in the past few months for taking advantage of the confusion over land and wildlife ownership and contributing to the uncontrolled depletion of the wildlife resources on listed properties in Zimbabwe.

Some of the carcasses of the animals shot on Chipizi Farm - an eland, two kudu, a wildebeest and fourteen impala - were taken to a butchery in the nearby town of West Nicholson for processing. The butcher, who wishes to remain anonymous, says the hunters provided their own biltong spices, and took away over 400kg of wet biltong and raw meat in two plastic crates and ten large waste-disposal bags.

Police in Beit Bridge recovered two crates of meat, but the bags were missing when the men were arrested. It is not known what actually happened to the remainder of the meat that was taken from the butchery, but it is suspected that it was taken to South Africa by Mr van Zyl who left before the weekend. South African authorities are investigating.

In a radio interview about the incident, one of the South African hunters, Mr Brummer, claimed that most of the meat from the trophy hunt was given to farm workers "and the farm owner", while the balance was to be used in exchange for curios before leaving for the border. Asked why it was processed into biltong first, he replied that they had not realised that the meat had to be brittle-dry before it could be imported into South Africa. Signs on both sides of the South African border clearly indicate that the South African Veterinary Services have put a moratorium on the importation of animal products from Zimbabwe because of the severity and extent of the FMD outbreak in that country.

Besides antelope, the South Africans also killed a hippo and a crocodile in the Chipizi dam but did not "have time" to retrieve them. War Veterans on the farm, who are believed to have been paid R7 500 for the hunt (well below National Park values), have offered Z$1 million to anyone who will retrieve the carcass of the hippo from the dam for them.

Zimbabwe is recognised worldwide as having one of the most professional and highly-regulated hunting industries in the world, and property owners and safari operators must complete a battery of National Parks approved hunting quotas, pre-hunt and post-hunt forms before hunts can be conducted for gain and trophies exported from the country. A CITES permit is required to hunt crocodile in Zimbabwe.

Proof of payment in foreign exchange is also required, and moneys paid to operators must be deposited in a Zimbabwean bank, in forex, within 14 days of the cessation of the hunt. Foreign client hunts may only be conducted in the presence of a Zimbabwean-licensed professional hunter who is responsible for ensuring that all regulations are complied with and that animals are killed in an ethical and humane manner. Furthermore, 2% levies on daily rates are payable to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority in forex.

It has been ascertained that the South African group complied with none of the relevant statutory instruments though they claim that their permits were in order. Police are still investigating.