[Andrew McLaren]

Phil Lozano can be assured that the South African laws and regulations did not change (significantly) since he became a professional hunter here in 1986. You still do not need to be a South African citizen to become registered.

We now have 9 Provinces, each with it's own hunting regulations, so a detailed answer is quite difficult to give. IMHO there are three major requirements that you should be sure of:

1. That the person offering you a hunt is really licensed to act as a hunting outfitter.
2. That you have a written remuneration agreement signed by the hunting outfitter.
3. That the professional hunter guiding you is licensed to do so.

It is a regulatory requirement that the client and the hunting outfitter both sign two copies [one retained by each party] of a remuneration agreement BEFORE the onset of the hunt. The basic minimum content of this agreement is described in the regulations. It being an “agreement” you and the other contracting party is free to add other clauses to the basic prescribed content. As a client you can insist that a clause be added to the effect that the hunting outfitter guarantees that all the hunting that he offers to you will be in full compliance to the laws in the province in which he takes you to hunt. To cover the first requirement I am quite willing to add a clause that states that I am the holder of e.g. Permit No. 008-00642 issued by the Limpopo Provincial Government that is valid until 12 May 2006 to act as a Hunting Outfitter in that province. If a client wants to “see” it, I’ll be happy to e-mail a scanned image, post a certified copy, or [if you get here] show you the original! I advise that clients do not pay any booking deposit before they are perfectly happy with the contract - referred to as a remuneration agreement in the hunting regulations.

I absolutely agree with Phil that prospective clients should insist on seeing both the hunting outfitters and the professional hunter licenses. Incidentally, it is a legal requirement that these be carried on the person while acting as one! So for example, if you, as a client of Andrew McLaren Safaris first meets his designated professional hunter, you are most welcome to request to actually see his permit!

In regulatory terms it is the duty of the hunting outfitter to ensure that you have all the required licenses and permissions to hunt legally. It is also the explicit duty of the professional hunter to ensure that you only hunt legally, and to [I quote]
“(b) who knows or suspects that his client has contravened any provision of the Ordinance or these Regulations, shall report it forthwith at the police station or the office of the nature conservator nearest to the place that the offence has or has presumably been committed.”

Now I don't know about the Lacey Act, or the American legal system, but IMHO it is quite and utterly impossible for any foreigner to become fully informed with all our hunting regulations in each province, and then also know in which province he is at every moment [provincial borders are very "soft" and mostly unmarked]. Again IMHO if you have a contract with a hunting outfitter that binds him to let you only hunt legally, you should be ‘covered’ against violations of the Lacey Act. You may still be technically guilty, but at least there are extenuating circumstances in that you took reasonable care to ensure that you do not violate any laws in South Africa?

I would certainly like to hear the opinion of legally qualified persons on these views.

In good hunting.