TELEGRAPH NEWS
Chelsy's dad speaks out
By David Blair, Africa Correspondent
(Filed: 11/06/2005)
Charles Davy, the father of
Prince Harry's girlfriend, Chelsy, defended himself in public for the first time yesterday against allegations that his business partnership with one of President Robert Mugabe's ministers helps sustain the Zimbabwean regime.
Mr Davy, a wealthy safari operator in Zimbabwe, owns a stake in one of Africa's largest private game reserves.
Harry's relationship has led to 'press rubbish'His
business links with a minister have aroused suspicion in Zimbabwe, where all but a handful of white landowners have been dispossessed, and prompted calls for him to be punished with sanctions.
Mr Davy, 53, broke his silence to respond to questions from The Daily Telegraph about his business relationship with Webster Shamu, the minister in the president's office responsible for policy implementation.
Mr Shamu, an MP from the ruling Zanu-PF party, features on a list of 95 prominent Zimbabweans banned from entering the European Union.
"I am in business with Mr Shamu and have been for five years," said Mr Davy. "We have an excellent and honest business partnership. Why should this change? I am in business not politics."
He claimed that he was not spared the Mugabe campaign of dispossessing white farmers, saying that he gave up 140,000 acres to the government.
Following Mr Mugabe's campaign of bulldozing townships across the country, which has left 200,000 people homeless and caused at least two deaths, the opposition Movement for Democratic Change said yesterday that Mr Davy's links with the Zanu-PF politician meant he was "sustaining" the regime and would justify his inclusion on the EU's list.
"The MDC has called for all people directly or indirectly involved in repression to be placed on the targeted sanctions list," said Welshman Ncube, the MDC's secretary-general.
"People who sustain the regime directly or indirectly through their businesses should also be included.
"If people like Charles Davy are indirectly involved in businesses with the regime they fall under the second category and should be included on the list."
The EU's list is reviewed every 12 months and comes up for debate next February.
Mr Mugabe's bulldozers will help ensure the renewal of the EU's "targeted sanctions" for another year.
The measures include a freeze on any assets that listed individuals hold in European banks. Mr Davy rejected the MDC's criticism, saying: "I am in partnership with a person who I personally like and get along with.
"I am not involved in politics in any way but I reserve my right of association, as any person should, and I really do not see that the leaders of any political party have the right to choose my friends or my business associates."
Mr Shamu, a former editor of The People's Voice, Zanu-PF's propaganda newsletter, combines his government post with running Famba Safari Company.
Together with another partner, Mr Davy said that he owned 50 per cent of Famba. His own company provides marketing services for Famba and his brother, Vincent, works with Mr Shamu as a director of Famba.
Mr Davy's relationship with a Zimbabwean minister has aroused suspicions that it is only because of links to Mr Shamu that he has managed to stay in business while white commercial farmers have been dispossessed.
But he said: "I have never received and do not receive any benefits outside my business relationship with Mr Shamu."
Mr Davy's children, Sean, 21, and Chelsy, 19, are students at Cape Town University.
His daughter's relationship with Prince Harry had caused a "spate of rubbish" to appear about him in the press, he said.
"I have decided to put the facts on the table in the hope that you will either leave me alone or at least write the truth and limit the adverse impact of all these untruths on my children."
Mr Davy owns a five per cent stake in Lemco Safari Area, a private game reserve covering 1,300 square miles in southern Zimbabwe.
He runs hunting safaris for clients who typically pay £660 a day to shoot big game, including lion, elephant, leopard and buffalo.
He divides his time between homes in the Burnside suburb of Bulawayo, the Chisipite area of Harare and a spacious homestead in the rugged bush of Lemco Safari Area.
When Mr Mugabe began seizing white-owned land five years ago, Mr Davy made a "strategic decision" to sacrifice four other farms, covering 140,000 acres, to the government for resettlement.
"I have given up a rather large part of my life to end up with the bit I have left," he said. "A lot of farmers in Zimbabwe have lost their farms and I am no different."
Mr Davy's hunting business provides homes and livelihoods for 600 black families.
He called on the MDC to "concentrate on repairing the situation here in Zimbabwe rather than trying to disrupt" his work.
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). Harry's obviously happy with her, she seems nice, genuine, she's gorgerous and does something with her life (she's a student while she could easily spend her days in shops spending daddy's money). Well, hope she comes to the U.K., with the sub-zero temperatures over there she'll HAVE to cover up
