Harare — The City of Masvingo is seeking strategic partners through its twinning arrangement with foreign cities and towns to resuscitate the Shakashe Game Reserve on the outskirts of the city so that it can lure tourists ahead of the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup in South Africa.

Shakashe Game Park's fence was vandalised while some of the game, including zebras and giraffes, was pillaged by poachers.

This prompted council to transfer the remaining game to Mushandike Wildlife Sanctuary, which is run by the National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority.

Mayor Alderman Femias Chakabuda recently announced that council was seeking partners to resuscitate the game park that had the potential to generate a lot of revenue for the city.

The city, Alderman Chakabuda said, was also in the process of trying to exploit links established with its twin cities, Kernen in Germany and Middlesborough in Britain, to court investors for the game project.

"We are trying to find investors with whom we can enter into joint ventures in the resuscitation of Shakashe Game Park since the perimeter fence was vandalised while some of the game was being decimated by poachers.

"It is our hope to urgently rebuild the game park in anticipation of next year's Soccer World Cup finals in South Africa," said Alderman Chakabuda.

He said the twinning arrangements with cities like Kernen had already benefited Masvingo as the German city had pledged to assist in the rehabilitation and upgrading of the obsolete sewer processing plant.

Masvingo, the country's oldest city, has the capacity to reap huge dividends from the World Cup due to its proximity to South Africa.

But this will require the urgent rehabilitation and expansion of key infrastructure.