HURUNGWE District Administrator Ms Tsana Chirau has castigated safari and tour operators in the district for not ploughing back into the communities in which they operate.

In an interview in Karoi recently, Ms Chirau said the district was rich in natural resources but was not benefiting from them, as those exploiting them were remitting nothing to the locals.
"We have places like Mana Pools, the Chirundu Border Post, Chirundu Crocodile Farm and the Chirimudombo tourist attractions that are generating revenue daily.

"There is also the Tiger and Marabou Safaris where people with hunting concessions are making a lot of money but are not doing anything to develop infrastructure, for instance in schools or hospitals or even start projects in the adjacent communities," she said.

She added that they had been making efforts to motivate local people to venture into tourism but they had not been forthcoming. The majority, she said, had literally pinned their hopes for economic empowerment on tobacco.

But the cash crop was failing to be a very reliable source of livelihood as the prices were changing frequently. Of course many farmers have built good houses and even bought cars with earnings from tobacco.

"There is a lot of tobacco coming from this district yet the pace of development does not tally with the volumes of that tobacco. We need to have some floors here to reduce the farmers' expenses and create employment at the same time," said Ms Chirau.

Ms Tsana also added that roads in the district were in a deplorable state, which was grossly stifling developmental efforts and the general movement of people.

"Our roads are under three different authorities - the District Development Fund, local government and the Ministry of Transport, a fact that may be making it difficult for the smooth co-ordination of activities," she said. There are also resource problems in places like Chundu where people can go for between 20 and 30km without finding a secondary school.

"The situation is also the same in Chirundu where Chirundu Primary School has no secondary school for all the children who pass through its doors. The nearest secondary school is on the Zambian side while on the Zimbabwean side there is one in Vuti, some 100km away," said Ms Chirau. She said instead of having a school for every five to six-km radius, in places like Mashuma children were walking for at least 15 km to the nearest schools.

"This has seen the ages of school going children starting from seven or eight instead of the current five years of age. There is also no water at most schools, for instance at Mujinga in Chidamoyo," she said.

People in most of these areas survive on sand abstraction for drinking water as most of the boreholes DDF and the council sunk are dry owing to the mountainous nature of the district that forced the water table to be very low. Hurungwe is the biggest district in Mashonaland West Province with seven chiefs and five headmen.

"Most of the chiefs have done very well in agricultural production this year, thanks to the President's Well-Wishers Input Scheme. Maize did well in most areas.

"Irrigation schemes are also contributing to food security. There is Chewore, Nyamhunga and Magunje Irrigation Schemes that are performing relatively well," said Ms Chirau.

She, however, lamented the poor health service delivery in the district citing that there was only one clinic in places like Chirundu which forced people to go either to Zambia or travel some 200km to Karoi. She said some MPs in the district had used the constituency development fund well and repaired schools and clinics.

"We also have a vibrant Zunde RaMambo programme and lately we went around building granaries as a way of guaranteeing food security," she commented.

lough-back-official-urges-safari-operators&catid=46:crime-a-courts&Itemid=138" target="_blank">Zimbabwe: Plough back, official urges safari operators

Although this link looks weird, it does work. I've tried to fix it about five times, but it keeps coming out like this.

No clue why it is happening, since this function usually works flawlessly.

The simple solution is to have the officials in those areas give the money back that they stole from the concession holders who paid them. Enough said.

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