Picked up the following today. Thought it worth posting so that anyone headed to Zimbabwe to hunt would realize that, though they may be booking through a well know safari operator, it's likely that most fo the cash they will spend there is supporting the corrupt government, going right into the pockets of fat-cat ZANU-PF politicians and Generals. As it seems that all rules of conservation have also now been tossed out, they will also be helping to destroy the last vestages of big animals in Zimbabwe!
The hunt areas named in the following article, fron the Sunday Times (UK), comprise ALL the "best" remaining hunting concessions in Zimbabwe.
CAUTION: I lived there for many years. The situation there is desperate. In their own strugle to survive (and make all they can, while they can), many operators will now falsly 'assure' the client that none of the money they are spending is going to 'government shadow figures' from whom they are 'leasing' the rights to hunting blocks, that will GENERALLY now not be true.
Dr. Ed
From The Sunday Times (UK), 10 August
Zimbabwe wildlife crisis as elite grabs hunting rights.
Jon Swain, Harare
As poachers slaughter more and more wildlife in Zimbabwe, the country’s minister of parks and tourism has almost bankrupted the body responsible for protecting endangered species of game by giving away valuable hunting concessions to family and friends in the ruling elite. Francis Nhema’s action is believed to have netted the individuals as much as £1m. But the parks and wildlife management authority, which he oversees, cannot meet the August wage bill for its 2,400 staff because it was not paid properly for the concessions. Last week banks were refusing to lend it any more money until it came up with a plan for repaying the loans. "But how can it while the minister is giving away the assets?" said an inside source. The knock-on effect of Nhema’s intervention has been disastrous. Zimbabwe boasts more national parks than almost any other country; they cover 14% of the countryside and were once superbly run. However, the impoverishment of the national parks has meant that scouts, the first line of defence against poachers, have been forced to cut back on patrols after running out of fuel for their vehicles and ammunition for their rifles. Rations are said to be in such short supply that some scouts have been ordered to shoot game for the pot whenever they go into the field.
Nhema had a reputation for good management until he began giving away the hunting concessions without going through a tendering process. One of the early beneficiaries of his largesse has been his sister-in-law Tendi Nkomo, the daughter of Joshua Nkomo, the late vice-president. She was awarded the Tuli concession for a token US$750. Another beneficiary is Emmanuel Fundira, the minister’s nephew. He was awarded the concession for Makuti, one of the most prized hunting areas where elephant, lion, buffalo and leopard are the main bag. The Charara concession, estimated to be worth more than £500,000 from hunting fees this season, was parcelled out to a consortium headed by Brigadier Paradzayi Zimondi and General Amoth Chingombe, two powerful army figures. The process started last year. This year it was expanded with Nhema’s creation of two new safari hunting areas to give away to cronies. One of them, at Sengwa, was created out of an area that had not previously been hunted but was designated as a wildlife research centre. Nhema has also dramatically increased the quotas of animals that are allowed to be shot to what conservationists say are unsustainable levels.
The annual hunting quota for Sengwa, which covers an area of 364 square kilometres, is now 12 elephant, five lion, 25 buffalo and 12 leopard. The sustainable level is put at two elephant, one lion, five buffalo and two leopard. Nhema confirmed that he had directed the allocation of hunting concessions to individual operators, but indicated that it had been on the advice of the parks authority. "If anything has gone wrong in the selection process of beneficiaries, the blame should be placed on the authority, which could have failed to discharge its duties efficiently," he told the state-owned Herald newspaper. Analysts said the changes have turned big game hunting into a new cash cow for the elite, who have already profited hugely from the seizure of thousands of white-owned commercial farms. However, they added that a rapid decline in the wild animal population from poaching meant the money was in danger of drying up soon. As much as half the country’s game has been slaughtered in the three years since war veterans began land invasions.
The land seizures have turned Zimbabwe from a peaceful and prosperous country into one of turmoil, lawlessness, hunger and poverty. It is estimated that it has lost as many as 3,000 cheetah, which are endangered worldwide, to gangs of illegal settlers who hunt them down with spears and dogs on confiscated white farmland. There are thought to be only 18 Liechtenstein hartebeest, a rare antelope, and the numbers of tsessebi antelope have fallen from 12,000 to 3,000. Several rare black rhino have also been killed for their horns, worth £30,000. Although elephants are not endangered in Zimbabwe, massive poaching of the 80,000- strong population has decimated some herds. A World Wide Fund for Nature survey counted 3,800 elephant carcasses in the Zambezi valley alone in the past four years. One person who has seen the damage at first hand is Sharon Pincott, an Australian conservationist. She works with the 400-plus herd of "presidential elephants" of Hwangwe. Despite their special status these elephants, too, have been poached. "What gruesome sight might I encounter today?" Pincott asks every time she goes into the bush to observe the elephants. "Will it be a severed trunk not long enough to reach the mouth with water?" she writes in Zimbabwe Wildlife magazine. "While I hope for the best I’ve learnt to be prepared for the worst."
From The Observer (UK), 10 August
'Mugabe says we are being stolen. All we want is better pay'
The brain drain has badly hit Zimbabwe's fragile health service
Andrew Meldrum in Pretoria
Shepherd Mhofu is disgusted. Recently qualified as a doctor, he is doing his residency at Harare's Parirenyatwa hospital. 'I have to perform D and Cs [womb scrapes] on women without anaesthetic. I must tell families of critically ill patients that they must buy intravenous drips and medicines. We must perform surgery without gloves,' said Mhofu, 26, inhaling deeply from a cigarette. 'I see patients suffering and dying needlessly because we are working in an unprofessional environment. The medical school should have trained us to work in medical conditions from 200 years ago.' Mhofu said he is not paid enough to feed his family, let alone buy a car. 'We are paid so little that all of us in the medical profession think about going overseas,' he said. 'I don't want to go, but I want to work in modern conditions. I want to be paid enough to support my family. That means I must go to Britain, or maybe Australia.'
Zimbabwe's brain drain has hit the medical profession particularly hard. More than 80 per cent of doctors, nurses and therapists who graduated from the University of Zimbabwe medical school since independence in 1980 have gone to work abroad, primarily in Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the United States, according to recent surveys. The exodus has badly affected the country's crumbling health system. The country has fewer than half the 1,500 doctors needed to staff government hospitals adequately. The University of Zimbabwe is operating with less than 50 per cent of its lecturers. The medical school is so badly affected that the annual intake of new students has been reduced from 120 to 70. 'Even that is not helping,' said one lecturer. 'My department has dropped from 12 lecturers to three. The standards of teaching are dropping too.'
President Robert Mugabe has accused Britain of 'stealing' doctors and nurses from Zimbabwe. 'We have created the environment that allows the upliftment of nurses. That's why even Britain comes in the dead of night to steal our people. They are recruiting pharmacists, doctors and nurses,' he said last year. But Zimbabwean doctors dispute Mugabe's assessment. 'We are not being stolen,' said a bitter Mhofu. 'We are seeking better pay and better standards. No one can blame us for that. The government would rather spend money on the army and on riot-control vehicles and on new Mercedes-Benz. If some of that money were spent on the health system and our salaries, then we could stay here.' Harare paediatrician Greg Powell, chairman of the Child Protection Society, complains the brain drain includes social workers. 'Britain is actively recruiting our social workers to the point where our department of social welfare is about to collapse,' said Powell. 'This means our treatment of Aids orphans is breaking down. We are seeing professional recruitment of our social workers by British agencies. They are offered salaries 20 times greater than what they get here. The result is we have 20 children ready to go to foster homes and it is delayed because there are no social workers to do the reports. British recruiters are directly responsible for that. They are pillaging our human resources.'
Topic: CAUTION! (Read 1340 times)
