Council ventures into safari deal

Masvingo Bureau
July 30, 2010

Bikita Rural District Council has ente-red into a joint venture with a private investor to develop safari operations at Save Valley Conservancy.

The council hopes this will boost the revenue collections of one of Masvingo’s least developed districts.

The private investor, whose identity is yet to be established, will exclusively manage Bikita RDC’s Mkondo Safaris.

The two will then share the proceeds.

Mkondo Safaris is part of Save Valley Conservancy and the council was reportedly failing to profitably manage it.

Bikita RDC chief executive officer Mr Johannes Mpamhadzi said they had courted the private investor as a way of increasing revenue generation.

"Our partner has extensive experience in safari operations and we are happy with the progress so far," said Mr Mpamhadzi.

He said safari operations in the Save Valley were their main source of revenue and proceeds had so far been used to buy all-terrain vehicles for daily operations.

"There is not much investment in Bikita, but safari operations provide us with some revenue," he said.

Many RDCs have small revenue generation bases due to lack of investment in rural areas.

Anyone know if this is part of the conservancy? The name Mkondo Safaris looks and sounds pretty close to the Umkondo Mine block in the Save Conservancy - currently hunted by Mokore. Bikita though is outside the conservancy as far as I can tell. Just curious.

Council is Shona for MAFIA. No difference working with either.

Bikita is outside the Conservancy area by about 50km. The Mkondo area would almost certainly be the same block as is currently utilised by the Duckworths(Mokore). I am not sure what the deal is between the Duckworths and Council is regarding the area, however it may have been limited to just utilising the quota with payment made for animals etc.....Once again I am not sure, but would be interested in seeing who the investor is.