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George Maponga–Masvingo Bureau

The rehabilitation and upgrading of the Great Zimbabwe World Heritage Site, which is expected to change the face of the historic site, will soon get into full swing as the inception phase that ran from July is now almost complete.

Government and the French Development Agency signed the €3 million project in July this year, which will see the upgrading and conservation of the Great Zimbabwe monument and underline it as a World Heritage Site and top tourist attraction centre.

The project confirms that the Second Republic’s engagement and re-engagement drive is paying off.

President Mnangagwa commissioned the official launch of the project, which has been dubbed the Great Zimbabwe Development Project.

The rehabilitation and conservation of the historic monuments will take three years and will enhance the ancient city’s tourism potential.

It is being rolled out under a partnership between Government, through the National Museums and Monuments in Zimbabwe (NMMZ), the French Development Agency and other partners.

NMMZ regional director Mr Lovemore Mandima said the Great Zimbabwe Development Project was now in full swing. 

He said the first six months of the project to December 31 this year covered the inception phase.

“We are on the verge of the end of the inception phase which kicked off soon after the launch of the Great Zimbabwe Development Project that was graced by President Mnangagwa mid this year and the inception phase will official end on 31 December this year,” said Mr Mandima.

“Under the inception phase, we were essentially looking at things like timelines for implementing various phases of the project and around February next year, we will move into the validation phase that will precede actual roll out of the project.”

The three-year project will cover areas like conservation and documentation, visitors’ facilitation, marketing and building a visitors centre to transform the monument into a true World Heritage Site.

“Besides boosting tourism at the monument, the whole project seeks to project Great Zimbabwe as a World Heritage Site and among other things any visitor to the monuments should be able to tell that they are at the historic monument,” said Mr Mandima.

The project will also benefit communities around the monuments as they have close cultural links with Great Zimbabwe monument.

Communities around Great Zimbabwe depend on the monument for income as they sell their handicrafts, with the renowned Shona village headlining some of the local entities that depend on the World Heritage Site.

Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Ezra Chadzamira, said the signing of the €3 million project was one of the major highlights of the 2022 Masvingo annual calendar. Minister Chadzamira paid tribute to President Mnangagwa’s administration for facilitating the game-changing project that has immense socio-economic benefits for Masvingo.

“The €3 million project to rehabilitate and conserve Great Zimbabwe will help consolidate Masvingo as a tourist destination of choice in Zimbabwe and we want to pay homage to President Mnangagwa for helping to accentuate the province’s tourism appeal.”

He added that the growth of the tourism industry in Masvingo augured well for ongoing plans to increase the number of tourists to grow the province’s Gross Domestic Product in line with Vision 2030 of an upper middle income society. Masvingo envisions a US$8 billion economy by 2030 and tourism is one of the key pillars anchoring that dream. The Great Zimbabwe monument was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1986.