NAMA traditional leaders have requested Environment and Tourism Minister Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah to grant them a tourism concession in the Sperrgebiet National Park in the Karas Region.

The park was recently renamed the Tsau //Khaeb (Sperrgebiet) National Park

The leaders made the request for concession rights in the park during a close meeting they recently had with Nandi-Ndaitwah at Klein Karas.

In a memorandum to the minister, the leaders said they wanted to develop an upmarket lodge and guided 4x4 trail aimed at the South African nature-based tourism market.

“Our concept of development is decided on achieving positive public awareness creation about nationally defined goals and supporting legitimate means for achieving these goals. In so doing we wish to securely lead our people to a condition of gainful self-assertion consistent with the nationally engineered development plans of Government,” the memorandum reads.

The leaders welcomed the name change.

“The name Sperrgebiet has been, and shall forever remain the ... epitome of force, suppression and loss in the minds of local communities,” they said.

“We therefore recommend its replacement with Tsau //Khaeb National Park, which denotes the desert in its contrast.”