Published by the government of Zimbabwe
9 September 2008
Harare — THE Parks and Wildlife Authority may terminate leases awarded to private investors who are failing to undertake strategic projects in the Gonarezhou National Park.
The parks authority awarded leases to private investors last year that in turn would come up with strategic projects in the vast park to improve the Zimbabwean side of the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park that also cuts across Mozambique and South Africa.
These include construction of lodges, restaurants and developing other infrastructure such as roads to link up the facilities within the park.
A parks official said it was now suspected that some of the private players may have acquired the leases for speculative purposes with no intention of developing the land.
GLTFP is an amalgamation of the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique, Kruger National Park in SA and Gonarezhou National Park.
"About 10 private investors were given land to build lodges in the Park but they have not started anything," said an official who can not be named.
"The Parks Authority is now of the view that they may have pursued the leases for speculative purposes and a decision could be reached to terminate them.
"We need to see development. There is a lot of private involvement in South Africa and Mozambique and we need the same thing to happen here."
On its part the parks authority has completed some major rehabilitation. These include conversion of chalets to lodges, electrification of lodges and rehabilitation of roads and camping infrastructure.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 The Herald. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
