Chopper crash pilot jailed

A SOUTH African apartheid soldier who crashed his helicopter at a safari farm near West Nicholson, and then buried the wreckage, was beginning a three-and-a-half year jail term last night.

Self-proclaimed millionaire and former cage fighter Fredrick Wilhelm August Lutzkie, 52, admitted a string of immigration and aviation violations.

Lutzkie, who was arrested at the Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo International Airport on Monday, was a "stranger and a danger" to Zimbabwe, magistrate Vakayi Chikwekwe said during a sentencing hearing at the Harare Magistrates' Court.

Chikwekwe said: "Mr Lutzkie is a real stranger and danger to this country. He smuggled money into the country and set up businesses without the knowledge of the relevant authorities.

"A person who smuggles cash and invests in a country Nicodemously can also smuggle it out of the country."

Lutzkie's trial on Thursday opened with him pleading guilty to 14 charges relating to illegally entering and leaving Zimbabwe several times, violating the country's airspace and fraudulently getting his passport stamped.

Chikwekwe sentenced him to six months in jail for each of the 14 counts for a total of seven years, but conditionally suspended half the sentence.

Lutzkie, who was last week branded a "national security threat" by a minister, went down in his MD500 chopper on the 30,000-hectare Doddieburn Ranch on May 5 while flying to South Africa, said Michael Reza for the state.

He had flown just four kilometres when the helicopter went down.
The court heard that he did not report the accident to the authorities within 24 hours as required by law. He went on to dig a deep pit using an excavator, buried the wreckage and returned to South Africa.

The wreckage lay undiscovered underground until authorities were alerted about the accident on May 20. The helicopter wreckage was dug up and the ranch sealed off by the security services.

Reza said during the period extending from February 1 to 28, Lutzkie flew his chopper from South Africa and landed at Doddieburn where he runs a game farm for rich foreign trophy hunters who come to shoot wild animals.

He was flying without permission from the Civil Aviation of Zimbabwe (CAAZ). Lutzkie also failed to follow immigration formalities, including presenting himself to border control officers and getting his passport stamped.

He also exited the country without the knowledge of CAAZ and immigration authorities.

Following the crash, Lutzkie fraudulently acquired an entry and exit stamp at Beitbridge border post to create the impression he had been cleared to enter the country.

Lutzkie told court that he did not fraudulently acquire an exit stamp but his passport was stamped after he was made to pay R30,000 by an immigration official who said it was a fine for violating the Immigration Act.

The court heard that an immigration officer who stamped the passport has since been arrested and will appear in court shortly.

Bulawayo lawyer, Vonani Majoko, representing Lutzkie, painted a picture of a businessman who had brought development to the communities of Gwanda and West Nicholson.

Burying the helicoptrer wreckage was the right thing to do, the lawyer argued.

"He buried the wreckage in a pit because as an engineer, he was aware of the danger the wreckage would have caused to passersby. It had fuel, and because of the forced landing, it was likely to explode," the lawyer said in mitigation.

"While in South Africa, he sent an email to the authorities in Zimbabwe informing them of the accident and where he had buried the wreckage. He also showed mercy upon the villagers in Gwanda, that's why he used his helicopter to drive away the elephants," he said.

But Reza trashed Lutzkie's attempts to play a wronged investor, casting him as a shady character who might have done worse than just fly into Zimbabwe illegally.

"Border jumping by a helicopter might not be prevalent, but it's very dangerous. He committed the offence on numerous counts, so clearly we haven't heard the whole story in this court," the prosecutor charged.

"He told the court that when he came here for the first time, he had come to nurse his worker who had been injured, but your worship Mr Lutzkie is an engineer not a medical doctor. Definitely it's a cooked up fishy story.

"On his second coming, he said he came into the country to drive away elephants which were posing a threat to villagers in Gwanda. Your worship, all we need is a phone call as we've a vibrant national parks department in the country that could have done the job. To fly all the way from South Africa just to drive away elephants is unbelievable."

Reza said Lutzkie was the author of his misfortunes.

"Up to now, we don't know the motive behind his other several visits and it boggles the mind why he came in and out of the country without authority. Clearly, he's the author of his misfortunes."

Chikwekwe appeared to have been persuaded by the prosecution, suggesting Lutzkie may have committed worse crimes including the smuggling of precious minerals.

"There's nothing that can stop the court from presuming that he could have been smuggling precious stones or even weapons," the magistrate said. "While he's rich as he claims, he can't be seen to be ignorant of the laws of this country."

Two of Lutzkie's employees, Lourens Marthinus Botha, 66, and Peter Schalk, 43, were granted bail by a Gwanda magistrate last week after being charged with working illegally.

Following their arrest, Lutzkie – who was then holed up in South Africa – sent a new manager, Kevin Brooms, to the ranch but he was deported after only eight hours of arriving at the property.

Lutzkie, who used Botha as a front to obtain a lease of the government-owned safari farm, now risks losing his investment. It emerged last week that he was operating without an investor's permit, only filing an application for one on the same day Botha and Schalk were appearing in court.

Cde Abedinico Ncube, the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Matabeleland South, has branded Lutzkie a "national security threat".

The minister blasted: "This is unheard of. We've someone claiming to be an investor yet doing shady deals. Our government has zero tolerance for corruption and we've laws that should be respected as a country.

"We take this as a threat to our national security and relevant authorities must probe him and see if he's a genuine investor.

"We're not opposed to investment, but anyone who wants to do business here must go via proper channels. No-one can do as he pleases."

Lutzkie, who has boasted of once shooting a man in the head, has crashed before in a helicopter. In May 2012, he was returning from a 10-day hunting trip at Askham in the Kalahari when his R50m Augusta A119 chopper's engine allegedly failed over the Northern Cape, forcing him to crash-land in the Severn area, about 70KM from the McCarthy Border Post near Botswana.

The helicopter, which was uninsured, was discovered camouflaged with branches and smeared with mud. South Africa's Civil Aviation Authority said it was informed of the crash three days after it happened — by the police and not Lutzkie himself.