Response To Turco Aborted Hunt Hwange
Firstly I'd like to say that I'm sorry Turco was ripped off so badly, but thus far nobody has queried what a hunting safari operator (the brothers aka Hwange Safaris) is doing selling safaris inside Hwange National Park to foreign clients - and I must assume that was the venue because Turco only mentions Hwange. Was it an adjoining state owned safari area, a CAMPFIRE area or what? Visiting sport hunters need to understand that Zimbabwe is in a horrific state by way of their wildlife resource management, due to the current political impasse. Unscrupulous Zimbabwean politicians and other well "connected" individuals have sadly gone into cahoots with a number of equally unscrupulous South African and Zimbabwean safari operators. The name of the game - "let's milk it while we can". Hwange National Park is just like any other National Park worldwide, it is not a hunting concession - would American guides be allowed to sell safaris to sport hunters in say Yellowstone National Park? I doubt it. South African safari operators certainly aren't allowed to sell hunting safaris inside Kruger National Park. Imagine if some Zimbabwean safari operators suddenly went into cahoots with a bunch of corrupt South African politicians and started selling hunting safaris inside Kruger National Park? There'd be a global outcry. One week ago I was sent an attractive looking safari marketing spiel by a client of mine. An agent had tried to sell him an elephant, buffalo & plains game hunt in Zimbabwe's south east, opposite Kruger National Park (the Limpopo River is the boundary). It was also a "Package Hunt" - which means, "No trophy, no trophy refund" the daily rates and trophy fee(s) are all lumped together. I know the area well because as young National Parks game rangers' in that area in the late 1960s we were doing elephant control there. Right now, it's been poached to hell with little left. On a moonlight night if you sit in the middle of the Limpopo River bed, you might be lucky and see an elephant or buffalo wandering into the riverbed from South Africa's Kruger National Park. Nice safari, BUT more importantly the two listed PHs aren't Zimbabwean or licensed there. To carry a legal Zimbabwe PH license, there is two criteria 1) You've have to have gone through the full two-year apprenticeship & 2) You've got to be a Zimbabawean BORN citizen. If a PH cannot prove that to a potential client, be wary, very wary, unless the PH is an honest man who tells his client that he is organising the hunt through an ESTABLISHED Zimbabwean operation of long standing integrity and repute. There are a number of them in that country, and in closure, indeed there are two brothers of dubious reputation inside Zimbabwe, reputedly in business with a South African and some Zimbabwean politicians, but their name isn't Kelly, and if any sport hunter is offered a hunt in Hwange National Park, please as conservationists, refrain. No true sport hunter should be hunting inside a world reknown National Park on account of a country's political woes and instability. Research properly who you're going to hunt with, and you won't get ripped off or become tainted with having hunted inside a landmass that is off limits to sport hunters.
ktsafaris apology on name screw up
....May with HWANGE Safaris (Gordon and Allan Banks)...
I copied and pasted the above from Turcos original post, and in my anger as a Zimbabwean citizen & PH at what he'd experienced, I responded too quickly, ...when I said they weren't Kelly brothers, I meant they weren't Banks brothers, between myself and my Zimbabwean colleagues were're pretty sure we know exactly who they are. At the end of the day, a handful of us are afterall ex government game rangers, turned professional hunters, with a very real concern about the future of our wildlife in a country we love.
