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Sifundiso Ndlovu Chronicle Reporter—-
A PILOT who crashed and buried the wreckage of a chopper at Doddieburn Ranch near West Nicholson earlier this month has been named as Frikkie Lutzkie, a South African underworld business tycoon and former apartheid soldier. Lutzkie, 52, has crashed in a helicopter before – and just like the Doddieburn incident, he told no-one and simply camouflaged the wreckage in mud.

The former Anglo American employee is under investigation by the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe following this week’s discovery of a South Africa-registered helicopter buried underground.

Authorities say he crashed on May 5 on landing at the government-owned farm, which he is leasing through his company Hunt Essentials – but authorities only learnt of the accident last Sunday.

Today, Chronicle can reveal that Lutzkie, whose great-grandfather moved from Russia and settled in Vereeniging near Johannesburg, is a controversial character who has been investigated by South African authorities for failing to report another helicopter crash.

In May 2012, Lutzkie was apparently 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.

Transport Minister Obert Mpofu said this week that Lutzkie flew into Zimbabwe illegally – and authorities will be looking into his background for evidence of any criminal activity.

Neighbours said after crashing his helicopter on May 5, with an unnamed female passenger on board, a second helicopter arrived at Doddieburn and whisked him away before authorities could speak to him.

Sources told Chronicle that Lutzkie’s company, Hunt Essentials, offers safari at Deka in Victoria Falls, Gokwe, Tuli block and Doddieburn.
Tuli block is on the Botswana side of the border, about 100KM from Doddieburn Ranch.

Cde Abednigo Ncube, the Minister of State for Matabeleland South Province, said Doddieburn Ranch was owned by the government and had been allocated to Gwanda Rural District Council. The council in turn leased it to Hunt Essentials which is fronted by his friend, Lawrence Botha.

Gwanda Rural District Council Chief Executive Officer Ronnie Sibanda told Chronicle the farm is Model D three-tier resettlement, designated so because it lies in the drier agro-ecological regions four and five, providing grazing for communal areas.

“The whole Farm is 67,000 hectares, but 30,000 hectares are under the Campfire programme while the rest is grazing area for communal areas. Lawrence Botha is a safari operator on the land under the Campfire programme,” Sibanda said.

Already facing questions over how Lutzkie apparently flew in and out of Zimbabwe unchecked, authorities will today be facing difficult questions over how a foreigner with a dubious background has been granted leases for some of Zimbabwe’s prime conservancies.
Lutzkie has been accused of murder, Mafioso tendencies in property fights and hiring cops to do his dirty work.

In 2010, he reportedly survived an assassination attempt by unknown assailants who shot at him 27 times with an R5 assault rifle. He told a newspaper of his “dramatic escape” by shooting one of his attackers in the face. “I saw his face explode,” he stated, although police never found a body.

He is also reported to have told a lawyer, who was representing three rival businessmen in a property wrangle, that if she asked him “nasty questions” in court she would be struck down dead.

Concerned for her own safety, Advocate Yolande de Klerk made the point of bringing the matter up before a judge at the Durban High Court. “Mr Lutzkie, I presume you were not serious when you said that if I asked you a nasty question, I will be struck down dead,” De Klerk asked him.

“No, it was a joke,” was his response.
On that occasion, Lutzkie had been dragged to court over a disputed property development deal, which was described by one newspaper as “shrouded in allegations of bribery, corruption and double deals” and by another as “a thriller, with dirty tricks, bizarre assassination bids and a police unit-for-hire.”

The piece of land that sparked the animosity is 188 hectares of prime development opportunity, which was bought by Lutzkie at a controversial auction for a mere R50 million while it was expected to reach a price in excess of R200 million. The Mount Richmore development, close to Salt Rock, is now valued at an estimated R600 million.

In 2007, his then 16-year-old son’s headmaster reported Lutzkie to the police after he hired strippers for the lad’s birthday party.
A close associate of his and West Rand gangster, Ralph Haynes, who disappeared in 2011, is claimed to have been last seen boarding his helicopter. But Lutzkie says adamantly: “I didn’t kill Ralph Haynes.”

The father-of-one says on his website that in 2010, at the age of 48, he was challenged to get into the cage for a fight against the 26-year-old South African champion, Amos Letzwayo. He left the cage as winner “after only three minutes in the first round”.

He also volunteers that he is “no angel”, adding that he “deals with people who intimidate or humiliate me or others”.
“As a last resort, I don’t hesitate to use my fists, but never without reason and fair warning,” he adds.

How did he make his “millions”? Lutzkie boasts that he “developed a coal mine from scratch; and then developed another coal mine; and then another”. He later sold the three mines to the Royal Bafokeng Family, “and with that I realised my dream of financial independence”.