MOZAMBIQUE: Africa Safari Adventures Juan Pace Mozambique Zimbabwe & South Africa

Dear All

I have lodged a formal complaint with PHASA a fortnite ago, with all the supporting documents etc etc. Lets see what happens next. Juan Pace still owes our party close to R100k for the hunt described in my original post

Regards

 

The argument has always been that these complaints are just finger pointing.

I look forward to seeing what PHASA does with some facts.

 

Best Henning,
I found the complaint to the PJSA Executive Committee and our lawyer, Dewald van den Berg Werkmans Attorneys sent.
According to the PJSA Constitution:
2. BY LAW PERTAINING TO DISCIPLINARY PROCEDURES COMPLAINTS
2.1 Any complaint against any member of PHASA must be lodged at the offices of PHASA within a period of 2 (two) years of the incident complained of occurring.
In light of this PJSA can not investigate the complaint because the 2-year period has expired. If you know of any other complaints that we can use, we can add to your complaint.
We are really sorry we could not be more helpful.
I will send the information to the investigating officer, Riaan de Jager, in the Limpopo province so they can investigate.
Contact me for any further information.
All of the best
Regards,
Marianna Louwrens
PHASA (Professional Hunters' Association of SA)
Tel: (012) 667 2048 - Fax: (012) 667 2049
Email: info@phasa.co.za - www.phasa.co.za
“IMPORTANT MESSAGE.

This was my reply:
I hope they get back to me with more concrete answers and ACTION

Dear Marianna

Thanks for your reply, but I was warned by all on the Forum that PHASA does not have any "teeth" and will likely not do anything. It takes a lot of courage to lodge a formal complaint as it exposes the complainant to all sorts of trouble hence the hesitation and late complaint, I also first wanted to see if anybody else had the same experience with this outfitter, it seems, as if this was not an "isolated incident" but that a lot of hunters were "done in" by Mr Pace.

 

Good luck sir.

 

I hope we see something more concrete from PHASA.

 

Dear Mr Pace,

Dear Mr Pace

We are obliged to investigate the matter and to take disciplinary steps
against members should it appear that they have breached PHASA’s
constitution or acted wrongfully or unlawfully.

Prior to us making any decision you have the right to respond to the
allegations made against you/your operation.

We accordingly attach a copy of the complaint and request that you revert
with a response within 30 days of this letter.

Should you not respond we will assume that you have nothing to add and will
make a decision based on the evidence we have in our possession.

According to the PHASA Constitution :
Any answering statement must be under oath and in writing and be submitted
to PHASA within a period of 60 (sixty) days of dispatch to the member of the
complaint statement. A member who fails to file an answering statement as
aforesaid will be deemed to have waived his right to do so. If the answering
statement is not under oath and in writing it will be deemed not to have
been filed.

Please do not hesitate to contact me should you need further information.

Kind regards,
Marianna Louwrens
PHASA (Professional Hunters' Association of SA)
Tel: (012) 667 2048 - Fax: (012) 667 2049

LOOKS LIKE WE ARE GETTING THERE!!

 

Good news.

I thought PHASA was blowing you off, citing the two year limitation on filing in the earlier post.

 

I have not had any news or otherwise from Marianna Louwrens since April 2016, and have now written to Tharia Unwin ( CEO ) to find out if Mr Juan Pace contacted PHASA re my Formal Complaint, and or, if anything has been done to this man ( used in a loose sense )

 

The wheels are turning, PHASA is dealing with Mr Pace.

 

I can also confirm that this is getting attention.

 

Jip, I spoke and emailed Tharia and they are now in the thick of it and giving this thing a lot of attention. Her comments were as follows

" We had to get a legal opinion on the time lapse issue. We will also recommend to our members at the November AGM to extend the current two years to four years because of the very problems your particular case experienced. ( They were to do with getting accurate info and the balls to go on a formal path to nail this guy from my side )
There has been many accusations against this member but somehow, everyone has always been scared to come up with a sworn affidavit. Strange industry: People blame and shame but the moment they are asked for hard core evidence and sworn affidavits, they shrivel away from it and you never hear from them again."

I would really urge our hunting community and members of this forum to get in touch with Tharia Unwin and lay formal complaints against this operator. Her contact details and that of Marriana Louwerens are on the PHASA website.

 

Lets put on our "game theory" hats here, PHASA.

It can take up to a year to get your trophies out of Africa. If anything goes wrong, things are delayed. Then there is the fact that many PHASA members have third-world telecommunications so reaching them to fix problems is hard and if they are actually working on the client's behalf to fix problems that can also introduce delays due to telecommunications issues with others. Then there are tannery issues, payment issues, permits, etc. In short, we don't know if we're being screwed and need an investigation until the two year mark.

What does that all mean? It means that most of us are VERY careful not to proclaim we're being screwed before we've exhausted every avenue. Usually around the 2-3 year mark after a hunt. So the statute of limitations is just short enough to prevent real issues from running their due course and then getting lodged as complaints in proper time.

I'm sure the PHASA members would appreciate given the benefit of the doubt too so the statute of limitations does two things: it causes haste and acceleration/escalation of a problem between client/PH, it causes real crooks to beat the system because they can delay customer action with lines of BS just long enough to escape an investigation.

Really sorry to the OP for having to endure these issues. Please clarify, is PHASA investigating in spite of the statute of limitations or not? Confusing.

 

PHASA is investigating and giving this their full attention. Mr Juan Pace has cheated one to many a client.

 

i hope to hell you win this one,not only for your self but for every body that has had this same problem.

 

That is great news. Thank you for taking all the time to do this and follow up.

 

The stated 2 year period is , as I understand it, a legal timeframe for laying complaints. As stated by @rookhawk this is not very practical for the game and hunting industry.
This exact point was raised at the last EXCO meeting. So we are looking at the legal implications of lengthening the timeframe and also PHASA is a living breathing organization and so this needs to go to the AGM for a vote by membership for future cases.

 

Its been a while since we posted on this story. I have not had any feedback from Mr Pace or PHASA. Mr Pace never gave his side of the story or made any moves to refute or defend his sloppy outfitting. I assume Mr Pace is in the US doing marketing, so I would re-iterate BEWARE BEWARE of this man. Please read and do your home work very well, before engaging with this outfitter.

 

Did the EXCO deal with problems like this this at this years AGM which are a real problem for the impression people have of hunting in RSA?

 

I hope at some point something is done about Mr. Pace. He is very good at what he does, cheating clients. I wrote a report about him and the way he treated me. Hopefully this helps prevent others from suffering the same results.

 

Hi Phil
At the latest AGM the members voted to extend the disciplinary proces.
As for JP he's officially no longer a PHASA member.
This means he can't attend DSC, Wild Sheep Show or Salzburg show in Germany.
Unfortunately SCI will still allow him to attend if he chose to.