HARARE – The Supreme Court is expected anytime soon to pass judgement in a landmark case which will impact on protection of investment and property rights, as well as the rule of law in Zimbabwe’s fragile economy.
This comes as a Zimbabwean safari operator, Suscaden Investments, risks losing millions of dollars it invested in a major safari project after the cancellation of its lease of Chewore North Area located at the confluence of the Zambezi and Chewore rivers in Mashonaland West province.
Chiwore is a well-known safari throughout the world and many of its visitors and clients are from big international source markets.
Suscaden Investments, run by 72-year old entrepreneur Terry Kelly (pictured in handcuffs), has been operating Chewore Lodge and Campsite for 15 years under two successive leases and a deed of settlement.
However, the lease, given by the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, was annulled by the High Court on the grounds that it was not signed by the responsible minister.
In a judgement delivered on March 21, 2025, Justice Tawanda Chitapi cited that the lack of the minister’s signature or explicit acceptance of the agreement rendered it invalid.
But evidence presented before the court showed the minister had signed the lease as required by law.
It also showed that the lease had been granted after going through the required legal process and procedures.
Suscaden Investments appealed to the Supreme Court and its bench comprising Justice Chinembiri Bhunu, Justice George Chiweshe and Justice Joseph Musakwa on 22 July presided over the case and judgement is now expected any time.
The Supreme Court determination will be key as it highlights issues around the rule of law, property rights and protection of investments, especially those concluded by leases within the country’s national parks.
Investors closely watch such cases and the determination will also have an impact on the government’s ‘we are open for business’ mantra.
The judgement will also define the country’s determination to improve the ease of doing business.
The Supreme Court appeal follows the ruling by Chitapi issued under case number HH192-25 after a legal challenge brought by ZimParks and the Minister of Environment, Climate and Wildlife.
The then Minister of Environment, Climate Change, Tourism, and Hospitality (the ministry title at then), Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, had denied ever signing the agreement.
However, in its appeal against the High Court ruling, Suscaden Investments argued the judge erred and grossly misdirected himself in failing to find that Muchinguri-Kashiri had signed the lease agreement when the evidence showed her genuine signature was attached to it.
Suscaden Investments says the court a quo erred and grossly misdirected itself in dismissing evidence given by ZimParks’s former deputy director to the effect that he had received the lease agreement bearing the minister’s signature through the usual channels and instructed that it be handed to the appellant after payment of the annual fees.
It further argued the High Court got it wrong in failing to draw an adverse inference from Muchinguri-Kashiri’s failure to testify and avail herself for cross-examination after hearing the evidence of the former ZimParks’s deputy director.
The safari operator argued that the court was wrong to place the onus on it to show that the minister had signed the lease.
Writing on his social media platform, economist Eddie Cross said: “A decade ago, a Zimbabwean Citizen applied for a lease on a block of land on the Zambezi River at the mouth of the Chiwore River.
“The proposal was to build a lodge and camp site on the site and operate it as a tourism enterprise. It was a Joint Venture with the Department of National Parks.”
Cross said the investor invested several millions of dollars in the venture, paid a rental each year to national parks and assisted it in the management and control of the area which includes hunting concessions on both sides of the Chiwore site.
“The hunting concession in the adjacent area is held by a well-known Zimbabwean businessman, Mr Billy Rautenbach. From the very start of this exercise, he strongly opposed the award of the lease to the new investor and has consistently tried to have him removed,” Cross said.
“Despite successive efforts to do so, during which he has challenged the legal basis of the lease and also accused the investor of activities which were established as being untrue, he has persisted, and it is anyone’s guess as to who is ultimately responsible for this latest test.”
Added Cross: “The investor may be local, but he is a citizen and at his risk he has invested millions of dollars in this venture. He invested on the strength of a lease he signed with national parks which have not invested a cent.
“His partner is national parks, a state controlled entity. What message does this send out to other investors who think they are safe? Who will move into this valuable property when it is vacated?”
Cross concludes by writing: “This injustice must be rectified and the ownership of the Lodge respected. Anything less just confirms that Zimbabwe is not ‘open for business’.”
The dispute around the safari project has seen Suscade Investments managing director, 72-year-old Kelly, going through torrid times.
Kelly was in 2023 controversially arrested and detained in remand prison for days on allegations of stealing motion cameras left as bait for hunting in an area where such activities are forbidden.
Despite attempting to hand over the camera to ZimParks rangers at Chewore Lodge and asking them to investigate the issue, they declined to take action and also refused to accept the cameras and use it as an exhibit.
The rangers also refused to accompany Kelly to the illegal hunting site saying ” it’s Billy’s, we can’t go there” and the head ranger of the area known as Kanda refused to take the camera.
Kelly then handed the camera to the police in Kanyemba.
After signing his statement, the matter was referred to prosecutors at the Guruve magistrate courts who declined to prosecute stating it was not theft.
Several weeks later Kelly was shocked after he was taken by police in the dead of night and transported in a boat belonging to Big Five Safaris, owned by Rautenbach to Kanyemba.
The ride by boat of approximately 50km through Mapata Gorge is extremely dangerous and forbidden.
Kelly was collected at Kanyemba by five senior officers who had driven eight hours to take him.
The 72-year old safari operator was further shocked when the officers immediately changed course and drove through the night to Harare where he was charged and detained.
This was despite the Guruve Prosecutors declining to prosecute him.
Kelly’s troubles were a result of a camera valued at US$50 that he had handed to the police as evidence of illegal hunting.
He was subsequently acquitted by the Magistrate Courts in Harare on the basis that there was no substance to the allegations against him.
At the time of the arrest, outspoken politician and social justice proponent Temba Mliswa accused controversial millionaire businessman, Conrad “Billy” Rautenbach of being behind Kelly’s arrest.
“Those behind the persecution of Chewore Lodge owner Terry Kelly have now had him arrested over some concocted crime. It’s all propaganda for those in the know because this is the work of Rautenbach,” Mliswa wrote on X. TheNewsHawks
