Zambia’s Wildlife Authority Board Chairman threatens investor...

Since the Mulungushi Truce Conference of 3 January, 2007 (see Bush Telegraph) - a meeting of hunting concession Community Resource Boards, safari operators and ZAWA, called by Minister Pande of the Ministry of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources in order to arrange a truce in the mounting criticism of Government's handling of the hunting and conservation industry, only one meeting of the industry has been held, and that without the Community Resource Boards being present. If Government does not confer with its private sector partners, with its community partners, if it ignores its problems, is unsympathetic, then criticism will appear in the media, particularly in the greatest liberating influence known to mankind, the Internet.

The letter from the Chairman of the Zambia Wildlife Authority is chilling: "...show cause why the Board of ZAWA should not deal with your menacing behaviour in a manner and style that should put the scourge to complete rest, decisively and once and for all." Sounds like a death threat.

My reply follows below:

3 October, 2007.

Walusiku Lisulo
Chairman of the ZAWA Board
Your ref: WL/JJ/889

Dear Sir,

Your letter of 26 September was received by hand today.

Your charge that I am posting articles on the internet which are libelous of ZAWA, its Board and the Director-General, requires investigation. As you are making a general accusation, I would presume that you have at hand those articles you consider libelous and could point them out to me. Once we have something with which to debate, I will gladly attend a meeting with the ZAWA Board, attended of course by my attorney. You, of course, already have details of my dissatisfaction with ZAWA and its Board and are, I am sure, ready to supply answers and explanations – something long sought after and promised by you at the Mulugushi Truce meeting in January of this year, and at two subsequent meetings.

I must state for the record, that although I am not required to attend any meeting on the command of ZAWA, or the full Board, I shall do so in the interests of the truth and of conservation. As a conservationist of long standing in Zambia, what I do is only in the interests of Zambia, its people and its wildlife. I am prepared to defend that.

Your sincerely,


I.P.A. Manning

cc. The DG. ZAWA.
cc. The Minister. MTENR.
cc. W.M. Kabimba & Associates

Zambia’s Wildlife Authority again rides rough shod over hunting safari investors…

Zambia’s newspaper, ‘The Post’ of 3 October 2007, carries a Zambia Wildlife Authority tender for the granting of a “ Safari Hunting Concession in Nyampala Hunting Block: Munyamadzi Game Management Area”. Nothing unusual in that you might say, except for the fact that there still exists a legal concessionaire of Nyampala, Leopard Ridge Safaris. ZAWA appears to have forgotten that they removed the concession from Leopard Ridge without due process, that the concession was re-instated by the Lusaka High Court in favour of Leopard Ridge, and that they then appealed to the Supreme Court – the case which is to be heard on 23 October 2007. ZAWA’s legal advisor appears not to have informed his Director-General that such a tender prejudices the Supreme Court appeal.

And one must not forget that the Nyampala Community Resource Board, the partner in the Hunting Concession Agreement - along with ZAWA and Leopard Ridge, had obtained their own High Court injunction, allowing Leopard Ridge to continue hunting, later overturned on purely procedural grounds in the Supreme Court, a terrible blow against rural residents of hunting concessions. Of course, when this happened, ZAWA sent in a force of paramilitary and their own schutztruppe at 4.00 am into one of Leopard Ridge’s camps, ordering Leopard Ridge to close down and depart the area. I wonder what the client whom they had hunting thought of it all.

And Leopard Ridge is also due to appear in court again – along with a few other companies, including our own, in yet another action brought by the National Movement Against Corruption against us, despite them having already lost in the High Court (with costs) and, the Supreme Court. The case? We had overshot our game hunting quotas they charged, something unproven and untrue. But NAMAC, it appeared, believed that their real intention was to expose some corrupt elements in ZAWA who had done nothing about bringing us miscreants to justice. It is all a little far fetched.

As we speak, our lawyer awaits a bundle of documents from the NAMAC lawyer so that the fresh action may commence.

So, it appears that NAMAC, rather than fighting corruption, is an unwitting part of it. If you look at Leopard Ridge’s situation and the case of Ed Smythe – an operator who simply had his concession removed and given ‘administratively’ to someone else, it is hard to dispute. And who is it that funds NAMAC, supposedly there to fight corruption itself? The Danish Government.

Are they aware of how their money is being mis-used?