FORMER world number one golfer Tiger Woods once said fishing is something he “thoroughly enjoys because it’s so relaxing, quiet and peaceful”.
Moses Matenga
To him, there is no human noise other than nature, so different from what he hears on the golf course during a tournament.
This was not so for Alpha Rujara (21) who was shot dead by a Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks)game scout while illegally harvesting fish at Lake Chivero last weekend. The story is the same with many other fishmongers and fishermen across the country.
To them, fishing is a sensitive subject which has death lurking, desperation and sparks anger in the same way it spells bitterness each time they go out “hunting” to fend for their families.
Either way, if it’s not running away from the jaws of crocodiles it is the trigger-happy Zimparks game rangers who they claim were in the habit of opening fire at will.
And when last Sunday afternoon, Rujara, according to his uncle and business partner Amos Rujara, paid $50 for “permission” to fish for only 30 minutes, little did he know he was paying for his death.
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When their time was up and before they knew it, the game ranger appeared and released a shot that instantly killed Rujara.
“We got here at around 2pm and we saw the Parks official drinking beer. We went to him and we paid $50 like we always do. We were allowed in for 30 minutes and while we were busy, he came from another corner and just shouted at us saying our time was up,” Amos told NewsDay.
“When Alpha attempted to use the rope to go out, we heard a gunshot and before we knew it, he was down and bleeding while the officer fled the scene.”
While the game ranger who shot Rujara was arrested he did not even sleep in police cells for a day, for he was taken to court and released on indemnity.
This means that the Office of the Prosectutor-General Johannes Tomana will now decide if he has to face justice or not or if Zimparks should be charged for the alleged murder given he was performing his duties.
Zimparks spokesperson Caroline Washaya-Moyo was not forthcoming when asked how the authority was dealing with the matter and the problems of fishmongers in general asking for questions in writing, to which a response never came.
As a result, it was not possible to establish if Zimparks had a shoot-to-kill policy for the poachers.
During the same weekend that Rujara died, Brighton Chinamiso was also allegedly shot dead in Chiredzi by another game scout while fishing using his man-made boat at Wasara ranch.
Samson Maravani, the scout who shot Chinamiso, has since been arrested.
Ward 32 councillor in Chiredzi North Antony Magaude confirmed the murder case saying Chimamiso was found fishing using a boat at night by game rangers who included Maravani.
Though Rujara was finally laid to rest on Wednesday, hearts of his family, robbed of a breadwinner, will never heal while his colleagues have vowed “enough is enough” and sworn to fight Zimparks head-on.
In a tense discussion with the illegal fishermen at Lake Chivero on Monday, NewsDay gathered that a lot of young men and women, most of them teenagers, were affected by the heavy-handedness of parks officials who were in the habit of attacking them and “stealing” from them despite paying to fish in the Lake and elsewhere.
“We pay money so that we are allowed in for a few minutes and on a good day, there can be more than 30 groups paying money which is not receipted to the parks authority, but pocketed by one or two people. Their problem now is they are overwhelmed by the numbers of people who want to fish illegally, hence they become tough and desperate to have more people in a few minutes,” a fisherman said.
“We have seen enough in this industry of ours. We have lost loved ones in cruel ways, but this is one we will not stop fighting until justice is served,” another fishmonger declared.
The fishmongers warned during a tough conversation with Zimparks officials at the scene of Rujara ’s killing.
During the discussion, what struck this reporter was the knowledge of the fishermen of the source of their misery which they traced back to Zimparks rangers and to their local political leadership until they got to government’s failure to create employment.
“There are no jobs in this country and this is our source of livelihood. We are more than 30 000 youths in this constituency and this is what we have known as work in the last decade, for some of us,” chipped in another in the discussion.
The comment could not have clearly confirmed better the admission by President Robert Mugabe in Marondera during his 90th birthday celebrations when he said: “We don’t look successful in trying to solve youth unemployment. (Some) 14 500 (graduates) were estimated to be produced from universities, 7 000 from polytechnics and colleges, but only 10% of them have had access to formal employment. Needless to say we have to act on that.”
Many people of school-going age in and around the villages surrounding Lake Chivero, including Turn Pike and what used to be compounds on Kintyre Estates, a once vibrant farm destroyed during the land reform programme, have no other alternative to a proper job.
Fishing is all they know and for far too long, they have managed to survive on fishing, paying rentals and sending their children to school.
Aleck Phiri, who has lived at the farm for more than 40 years, recently told our sister newspaper Zimbabwe Independent of how at least 50 truckloads of milk were loaded every day and how people benefited from employment then, and there was no problem of deaths caused by desperation of youths who couldn’t find anything to do for a living.
A meeting was held immediately after the tragic incident where an agreement was made that fish poachers should fight for their rights and if not heard, they would use juju on Zimparks game scouts who they accused of recklessly shooting at them and taking their money at will.
They said there were many such cases of colleagues being shot at and injured that went unreported, but vowed to fight for justice.
“Something of this sort happened three years ago and the family of the person killed consulted a traditional healer. The official who shot him dead went for three months without defecating. He was just tucking in lots of food, but not going to the toilet, I think that’s the language they will understand,” said one of the fishermen.
Others felt that parks officials were in the habit of taking their guns to drinking places in nearby compounds posing danger to ordinary people.
This is, however, not the first time fish poachers have been shot dead or injured by the parks officials.
Farai Musoni, a fish poacher said he lost a relative in 2006 after he was shot by the officials alleging up to now, the official was still free.
Far from the cruelty of Zimparks officials, the fishmongers have their own fair share of serious challenges with crocodiles that have left many injured, but still fighting in the waters saying that was their only source of livelihood.
In 2010, NewsDay wrote a story about Shepherd Tichareva who was severely injured after grappling with a crocodile that ended with him in hospital, but vowing to “go back to work” if he recovered.
But one fisherman said: “This is our life, this is our story and we don’t fish for fun. These people need to understand there are no jobs in the country and we should be protected. At least we are not robbing people, but working hard for a living. We can’t sit and relax when we are being killed for our work”.
For the Rujaras, life will never be the same again without Alpha and for the Lake Chivero fishermen and fishmongers, it is business as usual as the battle to survive continues, unabated.
