Mugabe probes tycoon for 'currency deals'
Basildon Peta
April 21 2006 at 06:02AM

Charles Davy, the controversial Zimbabwean businessman whose daughter is dating Britain's Prince Harry, has landed in hot water after the Mugabe regime announced it was investigating him for illegally dealing in and exporting large amounts of foreign currency abroad.

Davy runs one of Zimbabwe's largest game-hunting businesses and has accumulated a fortune. His hunting business survived President Robert Mugabe's wholesale seizures of white properties, and he has connections with a prominent Mugabe crony, cabinet minister Webster Shamu.

But Davy's fortunes seem to have nosedived this week after Anti-Corruption Minister Paul Mangwana revealed that the Zimbabwean government had begun investigating the wealthy businessman and his safari company, HHK Safaris, one of the largest hunting and safari businesses in Southern Africa.

It is believed that investigations into Davy's multimillion-rand hunting empire were triggered by a disgruntled black employee who alleged that much of the firm's foreign currency earnings were being channelled outside Zimbabwe and traded illegally on the foreign exchange market.

But it also appears that Davy's former cronies, mainly Shamu, are unhappy with his running of the affairs of the company.

Davy has sought to distance himself from HHK Safaris to protect the business. It has publicised the fact that he is no longer a director.

An HHK official, Graham Hingeston, claimed this week that Davy was no longer a shareholder of the business, having disposed of his equity.

Hingeston also told the US hunting journal the Hunting Report that Shamu was never a joint-venture investor but just a "front man" who did not own shares in the business.

The remarks infuriated Shamu, who considers himself the main pillar behind HHK Safari's success.

If, as it seems, Shamu has now decided to exact revenge on Davy by setting the regime against him, then Harry's possible father-in-law is in deep trouble.

Scores of businessmen have fled the country and others were jailed without bail after similar charges were raised against them.

Efforts to reach Davy failed on Thursday Hunting industry officials said he now spent much of his time in South Africa and Mozambique. They said he might not be in any hurry to return to Zimbabwe for fear of being jailed. Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chairperson Karikoga Kaseke confirmed that investigations against Davy were under way.

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