Convicted in the US, under investigation for poaching in South Africa and locked out of a Botswana concession, trophy hunter Dawie Groenewald is now accused of swindling an American and a Canadian during an illegal excursion in Zimbabwe.
Over the course of a 10-day expedition in Hwange National Park and the Matetsi Private Game Reserve, he and his associate, Tossie van der Merwe, allegedly hunted without permits, used foreign-registered vehicles, bribed two state rangers and abandoned wounded animals.
The North Americans went home without their trophies, while the Zimbabwean professional hunters who fronted for the South Africans say they remain unpaid.
Currency’s account of events is drawn from sources at Zimbabwe’s State Security Agency, a senior tourism official, as well as from others who monitored the expedition, were somehow tied to the trip or dealt with the travellers, and from WhatsApp messages, voice recordings, photographs, passports and itineraries. Sources spoke under the condition of anonymity.
Groenewald pleaded guilty in the US in 2010 to smuggling a leopard trophy, and faces more than 1,600 charges in South Africa relating to rhino poaching, trafficking, racketeering and money-laundering. The case, which dates back to 2010, will require 185 witnesses, according to the Hawks. In March, he was ordered to leave a lucrative trophy-hunting concession in Botswana’s Okavango Delta by the community whose ancestral land it is, amid allegations that he had used political influence to secure the deal against some of their wishes.
The Canadian, contacted by Currency, confirmed that the passport and itinerary in our possession were his, but denied ever entering Zimbabwe, or knowing Groenewald or Van der Merwe.
Set up at the Nashville expo
The trip followed a Safari Club International expo in Nashville, Tennessee, in January 2025, where Groenewald’s DK Superior Safaris and a second entity, Wild African Safaris, marketed a Zimbabwe package featuring crocodiles up to 6m long, buffalo, leopard and elephant. Trophies ranged from $31,000 to $90,000, and daily lodging between $3,500 and $6,500 per person. Currency has a picture of Van der Merwe at the event.
The American and the Canadian, whose names are known to Currency, flew into Joburg on April 17 2025, apparently at Groenewald’s invitation. Currency has seen their passports and the travel itinerary that the Canadian lodged with the South African Police Service on arrival. Between them, the two paid more than R300,000 for the package.
From Joburg, the party drove north in a convoy of four South African-registered vehicles. According to the state security source, who monitored the expedition from the moment it refuelled at a filling station about 25km south of Hwange National Park, the convoy proceeded to Camp Marara, a lodge inside the park owned by Zanu-PF stalwart Headman Sibanda. Sibanda is a former warden of the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks).
Tourism operators in Zimbabwe are required to lodge daily registers of overnight guests, along with copies of their identity documents, with a special unit known as the Tourism Police, which collects them each morning.
Groenewald’s name in the Marara register flagged him immediately as a person of interest, according to a separate source. The South African had been banned for a period in September 2005 after his outfit, Out of Africa Adventurous Safaris, was accused of hunting with war vets on former white-owned farms that had been seized by the state. The presence of his son, Ruan, in the party added to the alarm, the source said. By the second day of the trip, the source added, an active surveillance operation was running.
Bribes at Hwange
Groenewald did not hunt from Marara, the source said. Instead, he apparently held a series of meetings without his clients, with two Zimbabwean professional hunters – Zimparks senior lead ranger Dominic Muleya and a private operator named Clifford Chipa – and moved the hunting itself to Gwayi, outside the park.
There, Van der Merwe is alleged to have shot and wounded a leopard, an elephant and several plains game animals that the party did not recover, the source said.
Zimbabwean hunting law treats a wounded animal as “taken”, a term which means it is counted as a kill. It must be reported and cannot be replaced without a fresh quota. Van der Merwe is alleged to have replaced the wounded animals without applying for new permits.
Efforts to contact Van Der Merwe were unsuccessful. Groenewald declined to share his contact details with Currency.
The information reached Zimparks through a collaborative hub comprising multiple law enforcement, military and intelligence agencies, and two rangers were dispatched from the main camp to inspect Groenewald’s documentation, according to both a senior tourism official, who asked not to be identified, and the source familiar with the hunting party’s movements around Marara. They allegedly established that he was hunting in foreign-registered vehicles on a permit issued for Kana Block – a concession the source said has no remaining wildlife – which made the hunt invalid for the Gwayi location.
According to one of the sources, the rangers demanded R10,000 per person in bribes to drop the matter. Groenewald paid R15,000 in cash. Because he was short of cash, he gave the lead ranger a Samsung phone to make up the R5,000 shortfall, but first had to drive to Victoria Falls to buy it, according to the source. Currency traced the phone number to the Zimparks officer who allegedly accepted it. While the officer admitted to knowing Groenewald and meeting him in Hwange last year, he hung up when asked about the nature of their relationship.
Zimparks did not respond to Currency’s efforts to seek comment.
The plot at Camp Selous
A few days after the alleged bribery incident, the source said, information was received that indicated Groenewald was discussing with the same rangers a plan to take four elephants outside permit limits, with the rangers retaining the tusks and Groenewald the skulls. Currency has not seen documentary evidence of this plan.
When word of the plot reached Sibanda, the source said, he confronted Groenewald and ordered the party off his property. They moved to Camp Selous, a concession leased by Chipa, who replaced Muleya as the professional hunter of record. From Selous, the party relocated to Matetsi, which runs along the Zambezi River.
In Matetsi, according to the intelligence source, the party killed two elephants, a warthog, a wildebeest, a buffalo and several crocodiles, none of which were paid for. Van der Merwe is alleged to have shot and wounded another elephant, warthog and lion, none of which were recovered. Chipa was allegedly paid to keep quiet about the unreported wounds. By the end of the trip, the intelligence source said, the party had “taken” at least 12 animals on a permit issued for a concession with no wildlife, with an unknown number of others left to die of gunshot wounds. Currency tried all available avenues to reach Chipa, without success.
Muleya, contacted by Currency, confirmed meeting Groenewald in Hwange in April 2025 and hunting with the party for two days before Chipa took over. He says the North American clients will not receive their trophies until Groenewald pays the Zimbabwean operators he left behind. Muleya confirmed the shootings and kills at Matetsi, and had followed the party to Camp Selous to demand payment for his services.
“To accommodate hunters doesn’t mean we get involved in their business,” Muleya says. “So if Dawie didn’t pay the hunting outfitters, his clients will not receive any trophy until he pays what he owes in Zimbabwe.”
The trophies stay behind
On the 10th day, the party drove the clients to Victoria Falls, left them there and crossed back into South Africa, according to the intelligence source.
The calls from North America started soon after. Currency has seen a WhatsApp message Groenewald sent to a circle of contacts that included game rangers and professional hunters asking whether anyone could shoot an elephant or supply a ready-made trophy he could pass off as the client’s kill. He conceded in the message that he had no cash but said he was “waiting for my quota then I will get money in”.
The quota he was referring to was the NG13 hunting block in Shakawe, in northern Botswana – the same Okavango concession Groenewald had been ordered off in March. Working with sources in Botswana, Currency established that he was attempting to sell the rights anyway to raise the funds he owed in Zimbabwe. The Botswana Wildlife Producers Association warned its members that NG13, while commercially attractive on paper, came with significant legal and financial liabilities and protracted court cases, given the fallout among community members over who should be allocated the concession.
Groenewald responds
The Canadian confirmed that the passport and itinerary in our possession were his, but denied ever having entered Zimbabwe or knowing Groenewald or Van der Merwe. During the three days it took the Canadian to respond, Currency obtained from one of the sources a WhatsApp voice note that Groenewald had sent to his contacts, instructing them not to co-operate with this reporter, whom he called an expletive and accused of pursuing a vendetta against him.
Groenewald dismissed the allegations of illegal hunting, bribery and short-changing his clients as misleading when contacted by Currency. He was presented with a copy of his passport, and that of the Canadian used for the bookings in Zimbabwe, and the audio of himself warning his contacts in Zimbabwe not to co-operate with this investigation.
“I have told you I don’t know anything about that or any of those people. I pay for every animal I shoot. I pay for every place I stay in,” Groenewald told Currency. “When I went to Zimbabwe, I was only an agent and not the hunting outfitter. When will you understand that?”
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Top image: Rawpixel/vecteezy/Currency collage.
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