Chapter Ten- Brushes With the Law

The inescapable conclusion was that the money had been stolen while we were in camp at Shangoni. Besides the fact that I was a very long way from home with no money, this was serious business. Clients often leave great deals of cash and other valuables in their huts while in camp, and they have every right to expect their belongings won’t be tampered with. If I had been the victim of one of the camp staff it was likely that clients had been as well.

   Still not wanting to believe this had happened I took Dylan’s advice and headed directly to the Company house to report the trouble to Dudley. When we arrived I took him aside so the client wouldn’t hear, and outlined the situation to him. He was furious, and immediately recognized the potential scope of the problem. Dudley relayed the news that one of Kirk’s clients had lost a hundred dollar bill at some point on his hunt, and chalked it up to carelessness on his part, but he had spent a couple of days at Shangoni.

   Dudley immediately ordered me and Dylan back to the camp at Shangoni, where we were instructed to search the three permanent camp staff and their huts. If the money wasn’t found we were to bring back all three and Dudley intended to fire them on the spot. He sent a tracker named Roy with us in case we had to bring the three workers back, and after topping off the petrol tank from a drum kept at the house we headed back north.

   All thoughts of relaxing in town were gone as we discussed how to approach the three workers. Eventually we decided to simply line them up and tell them why we were there, and if no one confessed we’d begin the search immediately.

   When we arrived on the concession we happened to see the camp skinner, named Jaboloni, walking down the trail about three kilometers from camp. Without saying anything we slowed and allowed him to hop onto the back of the Cruiser. When we arrived at camp we summoned the other two employees, who oddly didn’t seem surprised at our quick return. When we explained our purpose all three denied any knowledge of missing money, but the skinner immediately began making accusations against the other two. It happened that his hut was first in line, and without ceremony Dylan and I went inside, where we found numerous cardboard boxes stacked along the wall. Dylan was in no mood to be polite and began dumping out the contents, one box at a time. We found a 5 pack of Federal ammunition in .375, which the skinner had no legitimate reason to possess. He claimed he had never seen the ammo before, and we impounded that immediately. I began to remove property from the hut and as I pulled the thin bedroll out of the hut a packet about the size of a brick fell out of the blankets and landed on the ground with a thud. It was neatly wrapped in newspaper and when I opened it I was greatly relieved to find all of my cash, along with $30,000 Zim, still in the bank wrappers. Jaboloni denied any knowledge of the cash, but he had been found out and he knew it. We finished searching the hut and finding nothing more, informed the skinner that he was going to accompany us back to Bulawayo to have a chat with Dudley.

   At that bit of news he became agitated and it took both me and Dylan to get him onto the ground and tie him up. At the sight of that the waiter decided to get involved, and he shortly found himself tied up as well. We tossed both of them onto the back of the Land Cruiser and after leaving Roy with instructions to look after the camp we began the drive back to Bulawayo. Dylan was concerned that we might pass through a police roadblock along the way, and it would be very dicey with two tied up workers in the back of the truck, but our luck held and we didn’t pass any roadblocks on the way.

   When we arrived at the Company house and showed the money to Dudley he was furious, and began to question the skinner himself. It turned out the bundled $30000 Zim was taken from Dudley’s briefcase, and the ammunition was also confirmed as his. The skinner and waiter both continued to deny any involvement in the theft. Dudley fed both of them and gave them some water, after which they were locked in a large storage room at the back of the garage. Dudley instructed me and Dylan to leave with them first thing in the morning so that we could make a report to the police in Gweru, the closest town to the camp at Shangoni that had a police station.

   We rose early the next morning and made a quick dash into Bulawayo so I could buy the items I needed, including a kilo of the excellent coffee grown in Zimbabwe. When we returned the two suspects had been fed breakfast and with their word that they would cooperate we loaded them onto the back of the Land Cruiser and left for Gweru. I expected them to jump off the back of the truck at the first opportunity, but to my surprise they not only remained, but gave us directions to the police station when we got into Gweru.

   There are two police agencies in Zimbabwe, the Rural Police and the National Police. We began at the National Police headquarters, but after telling the story numerous times to various officers we were told the report would need to be taken by the Rural Branch. The officer offered to send a man along to guide us to the correct police station, but then Jaboloni piped up and offered that he knew exactly where the station was. True to his word, he directed us to the correct place, and thus began our experience with Zimbabwe Bureaucracy. We told the story to numerous people at the front counter, and eventually one of them directed us to the Chief Inspector, who insisted we tell the story all over again. He seemed highly disinterested until the stolen ammunition was mentioned, and then he demanded to see the evidence, which was produced immediately. It seems that firearms laws in Zimbabwe prohibit possession of ammunition without the proper licenses and permits, and now we had the Chief Inspector convinced that a serious breach of the public peace had indeed occurred.

   Formalities must be observed, of course, and despite the fact that the ammunition was still in a factory box with the brand name and caliber clearly marked, as well as a headstamp that again indicated the caliber, the Inspector insisted the ammunition would have to be properly identified by a technician at the Police Armory, which was housed in a small building on the opposite end of the Police Compound. We all walked to the Armory as a group, the suspects included, and presented the evidence to a technician standing at the counter. Perhaps one could imagine my surprise when after consulting numerous references the technician correctly identified the caliber of the ammunition as .375 H&H. This seemed to satisfy the Chief Inspector, who informed us the ammunition would be kept as evidence for the trial.

   From there we were directed to another officer who began to take typed statements from each of us, while the rest of the group awaited their turn, in full view and hearing of the person making the statement. That took several hours, and then there was a heated discussion amongst several officers as to what should be done with all the cash, since in fact it was evidence. I wasn’t even considering leaving that amount of money in their hands, and was greatly relieved when they decided the expedient procedure would be to log in the cash as evidence and then immediately sign it out to our custody, making it our responsibility to produce the evidence at trial. I was only too happy to agree, believing that the trial would occur long after I had left the country.

   After the long drawn out day the police decided there was enough evidence to hold Jaboloni on theft charges, but the waiter would be free to go. We were then informed that we would need to be back in Gweru on Monday for the trial. Considering that it was Friday, I was quite shocked that the trial was so soon but the police confirmed that it would indeed be the trial, not any sort of preliminary hearing....