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Prosper Ndlovu Deputy News Editor
A SOUTH African apartheid soldier who crashed his helicopter near West Nicholson before secretly burying the wreckage was branded a liar by Zimbabwean immigration officials yesterday.
Frederick Wilhelm August Lutzkie, 52, claims to have made several trips to Zimbabwe after acquiring 100 percent shareholding in the 30,000-hectare Doddieburn Ranch in July last year.

But immigration officials yesterday told Chronicle that the eccentric businessman – a former cage fighter – has only ever entered Zimbabwe legally ONCE, on May 6 this year, two days after his R800,000 MD500 chopper went down.

The bombshell disclosure by Notius Tarisai, the Assistant Regional Immigration Officer in Charge of Beitbridge, confirms earlier fears that Lutzkie and dozens of associates flew in and out of Zimbabwe without following proper immigration channels.

Cde Abedinico Ncube, the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs in Matabeleland South, last night branded Lutzkie a “security threat” as he demanded a full review of how he was allowed free reign in a government conservancy.

It also emerged that Lutzkie, who claims to have sunk $2 million developing the conservancy, only applied for an investor’s permit yesterday.

The revelations came as two of his employees Lourens Marthinus Botha, 66, and Peter Schalk, 43, were granted bail by a Gwanda magistrate following their arrest last Thursday. They are charged with working illegally.

Botha, through his company Hunting Essentials, was leasing the ranch from the Gwanda Rural District Council, which has caretaker charge of the government-owned property. He became ranch manager after selling his shareholding.

Minister Ncube blasted: “This is unheard of. We’ve someone claiming to be an investor yet doing shady deals. Our government has zero tolerance for corruption and we’ve laws that should be respected as a country.

“We take this as a threat to our national security and relevant authorities must probe him and see if he’s a genuine investor.
“We’re not opposed to investment, but anyone who wants to do business here must go via proper channels. No-one can do as he pleases.”
Cde Ncube said Lutzkie and his associates were “making a mockery” of the country’s borders and laws.

He added: “This man is dishonest. He’s a criminal and the law should deal with him. We can’t allow our country to be treated like this. One can’t bulldoze his way into the country willy-nilly under the name of investment.”

Yesterday, Gwanda Rural District Council chief executive officer Ronnie Sibanda refused to take questions, asking to be interviewed on Friday “when I’m in office.”

Lutzkie, who has Russian roots and claims to have once shot a man in the head, was flying with his wife on May 4 when they crashed on the ranch. He claims he was inspecting a fence – but intelligence services are investigating reports that he may have been carrying contraband that weighed down the chopper.

The businessman admits to burying the wreckage whole underground. He left for South Africa shortly afterwards without informing authorities, it is believed aboard another helicopter which flew in low from South Africa without being detected by radar.

But his movements before and after the accident, as explained in a statement he released to this newspaper, have put him at odds with the immigration department.

According to Assistant Regional Immigration Officer Tarisai, there is no record of Lutzkie entering Zimbabwe at any time other than May 6, when he entered the country by road.

Tarisai told Chronicle: “The truth is that Lutzkie only came to the country once through the formal immigration process, driving a motor vehicle registration number HDK 646 MP on May 6.

“He has no other record of having entered Zimbabwe using an aircraft, and this means he has landed in the country illegally. When he came on May 6, he said he was going to Doddieburn farm for 21 days and had R10,000.”

Tarisai said it was not clear how Lutzkie left the country. He described him as a “criminal”.
“He’s lying and we’re not interested in his stories anymore, we’ll let the law take its course. Only the production of his passport will reveal his trend of travel,” he said.

Chronicle has a photocopy of a page from Lutzkie’s passport, which he e-mailed from South Africa.
The page bears two stamps by Zimbabwean immigration which appear to show him entering the country on April 27 and again on May 6 this year. The ink is faint, but two more stamps marked “Exit” were put on his passport on May 6 and May 7.

The May 6 stamp is not fully legible, but the May 7 stamp is marked ‘Beitbridge – Rail’, and is used for rail passengers.
He also supplied a TIP referenced ZWBB/MT/AIR/2/13. The TIP bears a Zimbabwe Revenue Authority Stamp dated April 27.

Explaining how he came to Zimbabwe on April 27, Lutzkie said he landed on the South African side in Beitbridge and was transported by a truck to the customs building where he completed immigration formalities.

He said he then flew to the Zimbabwean side where he “landed at the open area where I landed before”. He says he was again transported by car to the immigration building where “the necessary forms were filled out for the helicopter’s TIP (temporary import permit) and our passports cleared and stamped”. He says he then flew to the ranch to meet an American hunter who hunted game for the next few days, until the crash. Leaving the crashed chopper on the site, he says he left Zimbabwe by road in a company vehicle to return to South Africa because the ranch has “no means of communication”.

“Once back in South Africa, I made enquiries regarding the civil aviation laws of Zimbabwe and then decided to return to Doddieburn. To protect the wreckage as required by aviation laws, I buried the unrepairable helicopter on the site,” he says in his statement.

He claims to have sent an e-mail to the Transport Minister Obert Mpofu on May 8, telling him of his decision to “bury the helicopter (tremendous explosive fire hazard) to protect children from nearby village and innocent bystanders”.

Minister Mpofu said the e-mail address which Lutzkie says he used was unknown to him, and dismissed his claims as “nonsense”. A copy of the purported e-mail, which Lutzkie sent to this newspaper, bears a date of April 8 — nearly a month before the accident.

Authorities were only alerted of the crash on May 18 by locals, and efforts began two days later to dig up the helicopter — sparking a major investigation involving the police, the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe and the intelligence services.

It is not the first time Lutzkie has been involved in a helicopter accident and failed to inform authorities. In May 2012, he was returning from a 10-day hunting trip at Askham in the Kalahari when his R50m Augusta A119 helicopter’s engine allegedly failed over the Northern Cape, forcing him to crash-land in the Severn area, about 70KM from the McCarthy Border Post near Botswana.

The helicopter, which was uninsured, was discovered camouflaged with branches and smeared with mud. South Africa’s Civil Aviation Authority said it was informed of the crash three days after it happened — by the police and not Lutzkie himself.

“I’ve millions of rands worth of property and vehicles and nothing is insured. It’s my prerogative,” he told South African journalists at the time.

Lutzkie, who has revealed plans to move permanently to Zimbabwe once the “trouble” is sorted out, said last week he would not be coming to the country until Botha and Marais were freed — betraying his own fears of being arrested.