Billy Rautenbach can bid for camp his rival was forced to leave

Zimbabwe’s parks authority is preparing to tender a Zambezi Valley safari camp that a 73-year-old operator vacated this month, and Conrad “Billy” Rautenbach can bid for it.

Rautenbach’s Big Five Safaris runs the neighbouring section of the Chewore Safari Area and told authorities that Terry William Kelly’s operations were affecting its business interests, The Africa Report reported. Kelly spent 15 years and millions of dollars building the lodge at the confluence of the Chewore and Zambezi rivers, lost his lease when the courts ruled it invalid, and closed on Aug. 3.

Rautenbach declined to comment when contacted, referring the publication to the High Court and Supreme Court filings. He is a business ally of President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The lease

ZimParks and the Ministry of Environment, Climate and Wildlife challenged the validity of Kelly’s 25-year lease in 2023.

Justice Tawanda Chitapi of the High Court ruled it invalid in March 2025, finding it lacked the ministerial approval required under the Parks and Wildlife Act and exceeded the maximum permitted term. He gave Suscaden Investments, Kelly’s company, 90 days to vacate.

The Supreme Court upheld that decision on Jan. 12, in a judgment delivered by Justices George Chiweshe, Chinembiri Bhunu and Joseph Musakwa.

“No amount of prior conduct can breathe life into an agreement that was void from the outset,” Chiweshe said, rejecting the argument that ZimParks had validated the lease by accepting rent for years.

Kelly said the document had been signed by Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, the former environment minister, whose name appears on it. She denied signing and declined to testify. Without her evidence, Kelly could not establish that the signature was hers.

He called the judgment shocking in a post on his company’s social media account.

Chewore North Safari Area forms part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site together with Mana Pools National Park and the Sapi Safari Area.

What happened between the two operators

Kelly was arrested and charged in 2023 with stealing a motion camera from what The Africa Report described as an illegal hunting site run by Rautenbach in the Chewore Safari Area. Kelly said he had taken the cameras to give to police as evidence of illegal hunting. The court acquitted him.

An online petition asking Mnangagwa to intervene circulated widely. The president has not responded.

Rautenbach’s interests span mining, agriculture, green energy and tourism, with a particular focus on game hunting. He worked closely with Zimbabwean government officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and holds Green Fuel, the Chisumbanje ethanol producer, through Macdom Investments and Rating Investments alongside the state’s Agricultural and Rural Development Authority, which holds 10 percent.

Investor confidence

Tendai Ruben Mbofana, a Harare-based political analyst, said the case damages Zimbabwe’s standing with investors.

“When investors fulfil regulatory requirements in good faith, only to have state approvals negated years down the line, it points to systemic vulnerabilities where administrative errors by state officials are weaponised against private entities,” he said.

He said the outcome shows that leases and state allocations remain precarious regardless of how much capital is deployed, and questioned whether Kelly’s replacement site offers greater security while property rights depend on political goodwill rather than enforceable titles.

Farai Maguwu, director of the Centre for Natural Resources Governance, said the government’s decision to allocate replacement land undercut its own case.

“If the facts were against him, why would the government compensate Kelly with another piece of land?” he said.

The settlement

Talks collapsed in February. Kelly said what had been offered was not close to a resolution, and that he was preparing a Constitutional Court challenge and a damages claim against ZimParks.

The Environment Ministry then intervened. Negotiations involving former Permanent Secretary Ambassador Tadeous Chifamba produced a settlement in July, under which ZimParks allocated Kelly a site at Illala, east of Mana Pools National Park.

“Following the disappointing outcome of the Supreme Court judgement, we found ourselves at a very difficult point,” Kelly wrote. “At present we are actively moving operations from Chewore to Illala in Mana. It is an exciting time as one chapter closes and another begins.”

ZimParks has not said when it will advertise the Chewore site or on what terms. Other safari operators may bid, including Big Five Safaris.