Webster Shamu's safari property faces the hammer

SAFARI company, HHK Safaris, reportedly co-owned by former Zanu-PF political commissar Webster Shamu and millionaire Charles Davy, will have its properties, which include vehicles, fridges, animal skins and boats, auctioned tomorrow over an outstanding debt owed to MBCA Bank.

Also to be auctioned are 11 animal skulls, nine deep freezers, an assortment of animal horns, 119 animal skins, a gas braai stand, a television set, an upright fridge, a microwave, 183x50kg sacks of fine salt, two steel filing cabinets, six pieces of round tables and chairs, three wall paintings and three pieces of sofas.

HKK Safaris, fronted by Graham Hingeston, has some of the best hunting and fishing concessions in the country.

It operates concessions in Dande Safari Area, Deka Safari Area, Lipilichi Widerness Areas and Matetsi Safari Area.

Although reports indicated that Shamu and Davy were major players in HHK Safaris, Hingeston in an interview with the United Kingdom's Independent newspaper some years back claimed that Davy was no longer a shareholder in the business after disposing of the equity that had helped him earn an estimated £20 million.

And Hingeston also claimed to an American hunting magazine that Shamu was never a joint venture investor, but just a "front man".

The company, according to its website page, operates over eight different camps around Zimbabwe and offers tailor-made hunting or fishing trips or combination of both as requested by potential clients.

Annually, it has a quota of big game hunts that include elephants, lions, buffaloes and plain game like zebras, kudu and elands.