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Isdore Guvamombe Reflections
Back in the village in the land of milk, honey and dust or Guruve, new projects are welcome if they are understood by the people and if they genuinely serve the purpose. There new projects that are not about how much monied you are or not. They must be profitable and serve their purpose within the confines of the law and norms. The full import of this instalment is that Africa Albida Tourism has come up with a zoo project in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe’s prime tourist resort.

What is wrong with the Santonga Project is that it is a serious profiteering project disguised as a natural conservation strategy to save the town from destroying its wildlife. In fact the reverse is true.

When the media, stakeholders and the people of Victoria Falls started questioning why Africa Albida wanted to fence off 80 acres of the last natural animal corridor in Victoria Falls and hold in captivity our wildlife that had been roaming wild and free much to the good of tourists, the tourism concern went ballistic and used all tactics in the world to gag the media and all and sundry, this villager included.

Like I said before, this villager will not hug a hyena to make peace. Never! Many of the residents and business people in Victoria Falls are a little sceptical about Santonga possibly because of the lack of detail.

Albida is attempting to circumvent existing processes and procedure, resulting in many stakeholders making allegations of corruption, ineptitude, unprofessionalism against the Victoria Falls Town Council and the Department of Physical Planning.

It defies logic why Africa Albida has had a cosmetic approach on this project which is very sensitive to all progressive thinking people and to the preservation of our wildlife, for, wildlife is the mainstay of our tourism. Back in the village we say no amount of cosmetics can beautify a frog.

It is ugly and filthy. They call the zoo an amusement park, to deceive our government and people. Fetid.

Defacing the last standing wildlife corridor, to the sole genuine access for our teeming wildlife to the mighty Zambezi River, Africa Albida is not only being insensitive but brazenly capitalistic. At the heart of this is that this commercial development designed to make profit for Africa Albida by charging $110 per head for the privilege of visiting the zoo. Your theme park.

This proposed 80-acre fenced project is a massive development for Victoria Falls. We have seen nothing like it in the last 25 years. It is 40 times bigger than the Illala Lodge and 10 times bigger than the Kingdom Hotel development. It is the biggest fenced development in the immediate vicinity of Vic Falls since Africa Albida built the Saf-Lodge development.

A simple question: is it desirable to fence off such a large area of land on the boundary of the National Park and what will be the impact on wildlife movements of doing so? Local residents have questioned whether fencing such a huge animal corridor so close to the boundary of the National Park, will reduce the flow of wildlife towards the Falls and Zambezi Drive where it is welcome, desirable and contributes to the uniqueness of Vic Falls?

They also ask if this is not going to divert wildlife into the houses in the high density and low density suburbs as they seek new routes to the drinking points on Zambezi River? This will certainly spark a human wildlife conflict of greater magnitude. It is unwanted.

The combination of Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and Albida will be the largest barrier on the corridor.

To this villager, there is no doubt that the Santonga Project is a critical and damning threat to the unique and authentic character of Vitoria Falls, especially when one considers that it is a World Heritage Site.

When you look at the balance sheet of the prevailing pros and cons, the project does not fit into the national conservation strategy at all. Such developments in a wilderness will drive away our wildlife and takes away our tag as the last vestige of wildlife.

Africa Albida and all those supporting this project are supporting an exploitative ultra capitalist agenda, which does not have any bearing on the future of Victoria Falls as a tourist destination and Victoria Falls as the last natural habitat of wildlife.

What will happen to the game drive and safari industry? What will happen to those people employed there? What will happen to our international status as a World Heritage Site? This calls for more time to do a serious Environmental Impact Assessment and revisit the project.