Land availed for Vic falls special economic zone

THE government has availed 300 hectares of land for the setting up of a special tourism economic zone in Victoria Falls while negotiations with an Indian company to set up a hotel in the resort town are nearing conclusion. Finance and Economic Development Minister Patrick Chinamasa said the government was working towards improving the tourism sector’s contribution to economic growth through providing necessary incentives and support.

“We’ve already taken a decision in Cabinet to establish a special tourism economic zone in Vic Falls. Some 300 hectares of land has already been made available by the government to the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality for the development of this special economic zone,” said Chinamasa. “Tourism is currently contributing 10 percent to the country’s GDP but as the government we’re working towards improving that to 20-30 percent. We look forward to an increase in tourism contribution to the fiscal exports receipts.”

Minister Chinamasa said the completion of the Vic Falls Airport would see bigger aircraft landing in the tourism city. The multimillion dollar Vic Falls international airport currently under expansion will change the face of the region and the airport which is going through a $150 million face-lift will be capable of landing and handling, in all conditions, long haul wide body jets.

Victoria Falls airport is expected to accommodate three times more passengers than it currently handles. Despite thousands of tourists visiting the resort town every year, there has been little investment in infrastructure. The expansion work, which is being carried out by China Jiangsu and funded by China Exim Bank, also includes upgrading the domestic terminal building, constructing a new fire station, control tower and installation of state-of-the-art aviation equipment.
Source: Land availed for Vic falls special economic zone (22/09/15)

Legacy partners African Sun in Victoria Falls

AFRICAN Sun Limited (ASL) has entered into a partnership agreement with the Legacy Group of Hotels (LGH), to manage five of its hotels, with the aim to globalise the units and making them more competitive.

Legacy is among the largest hotel chains in South Africa, with operations in Gabon, Ghana, Namibia and Nigeria and d will manage ASL hotels from October 1.

ASL board chairperson, Hebert Nkala said last week that the new business model, which the group has adopted, will see a number of changes happening and is a move away from the traditional in-house hotel management model to hotel investment model.
Nkala said under this model ASL will globalise the hotels by contracting international hotel management companies of repute to manage selected hotels in the group.

“Legacy will take over management and embark on major refurbishment of the Elephant Hills Resort and Conference Centre, The Kingdom at Victoria Falls, Hwange Safari Lodge, Troutbeck Resort and Monomotapa Hotel,” Nkala said.

He said the group expects LGH to spend about $60 million in refurbishments and expansion over the next three years, with major refurbishments at Elephant Hills starting within the coming eight weeks.

He, however, said the new look ASL group will have three strategic business units or divisions which are the Legacy Group SBU with the five hotels headed by Legacy Group chairperson, Bart Dorrestein and his team.

The International Hotels Group (IHG), another hotel super brand, which retained its right to continue with the franchising structure with respect to Holiday Inn Harare and Holiday Inn Bulawayo and the soon to be rebranded Holiday Inn Mutare.

This SBU will be headed by Tich Hwingwiri.

The unbranded hotels business unit, which will be made up of the Victoria Falls Hotel, an affiliate of the Leading Hotels of the World, which the group is currently operating with its partner, Meikles Hotel.

Nkala said under this unit will also fall three of the group’s remaining hotels which will continue to be managed by ASL until their future was decided, Caribbea Bay Resort, which needs major refurbishment, Great Zimbabwe Hotel which needs an extensive product revamp and Beitbridge Express Hotel whose viability is still being assessed.

He said the units will report directly to ASL managing director Edwin Shangwa.

Nkala said ASL has begun making positive steps towards rationalising its regional exposure in the expansion projects across the continent and that, including other efforts on the home front, such as head office head count which has been reduced to 12 from 42.

He also said the group debt has been reduced to $9,8 million from $ 22 million as at August 31.

Nkala said ASL will disinvest from its regional operations.

“To that effect the, Amber Hotel Accra, Ghana lease agreement was mutually terminated effective August 31 2015 and management is in the process of engaging the West African Sun Hotels Limited, Nigeria with a view to exit by September 30 2015,” he said.

He added that the rationalisation exercise will result in savings of over $10 million per annum.

The savings will be concentrated back into ASL profitable Zimbabwe operations that are going to need substantial capital expenditure to bring them back to their former glory, Nkala said.

Source: Legacy partners African Sun in hotel management (21/09/15)

Victoria Falls airport to miss completion deadline

THE new look multi-million dollar Victoria Falls International Airport, currently undergoing a Chinese-funded upgrade, will miss the September completion deadline, a source familiar with the project said, although government remains hopeful that it can still be commissioned this year.

The Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe (CAAZ) initiated the $150 million airport expansion project in February 2013 to boost its aircraft handling capacity and tourism in Victoria Falls and expected the all the project works to be completed by next month.

“We will miss September deadline but details will be clear next week on Monday when management from Harare will come for a meeting with stakeholders,” a source told The Source last week.

Last year the contractor, China Jiangsu, requested an extension, first to June and later to September this year.

Initially, the international terminal building was scheduled for a November 2014 completion while the new four kilometre runway was scheduled for completion last December.

None of them are complete with work still ongoing on the three storey structure, resurfacing the old parking area and clearing outside parking area. Construction of the control tower and fire station is still underway.

The project also involves upgrading of the domestic terminal building, construction of a new water plant and installation of state –of–the art aviation equipment.  The aircraft parking area is being extended to allow parking of five wide body aircraft at any given time.

However, tourism minister Walter Mzembi who was in the resort town last Tuesday, said the facility was still within its completion timeframe.

“I am hopeful the airport is still within its completion timeframe. Remember there is a lot of work going on and this facility will be a game changer,” he said.

“As a ministry we are also doing something parallel as we are inviting airlines because we hope the airport will be commissioned before year-end.”

The new-look airport would handle more than 1,7 million passengers annually, up from the current 500,000 and would process wide-bodied aircraft.

The expansion is being funded by China Exim Bank.

Airlines currently using the airport are Air Zimbabwe, Fly Africa, South Africa Airways, Comair and Air Namibia.

Source: Victoria Falls airport to miss completion deadline (12/09/15)

Hotels, tour operators dismiss 250 workers

Leonard Ncube and Adelaide Moyo Victoria Falls Reporters

PLAYERS in the tourism industry have joined the bandwagon of employee dismissals using the recent Supreme Court ruling with hundreds of workers being served with letters of termination of contracts last week.

Africa Sun Group’s Elephant Hills Resort, Kingdom and Victoria Falls Hotel, Khanondo Safari Tours and Lion Encounter are some of the giant players that dismissed workers this past week.
A combined 250 workers were served with letters of dismissal and the number could be more as information from other players that include lodges could not be established.

The workers, including the longest serving, were given three months’ notice as per the Supreme Court ruling.

Thirty workers were reportedly shown the exit door at Elephant Hills while the hotel is believed to be targeting to offload 150 workers.

At Khanondo Safaris, which is owned by Transport Minister, Obert Mpofu, 36 workers have been dismissed with immediate effect while an unconfirmed number had contracts terminated a week ago.

“On Wednesday we were called into the office and each was given a letter of termination of contract. They told us that the dismissal is with immediate effect. Thirty were given the letters and we don’t even know how many will be served later,” said one of the affected workers from Elephant Hills.

“A total of 36 workers from Khanondo Safaris have been served with three months’ notices. A majority of these were given the letters last week. We were told to stop reporting for work immediately. People are leaving with nothing despite the number of years served at the company. Most people are shattered because we are owed a lot of money in unpaid salaries,” a former Khanondo Safaris worker added. Another worker said life will be unbearable for many of them.

One of the notice letters from Khanondo Safaris shown to Chronicle reads in part: “Please be advised that your express or implied contract of employment has been terminated in terms of Labour Act 29:01 read with its amendment No 7 of 2005, Item 6, Section 12 Subsection 4(a) due to the current business environment marked by low business. You are hereby given three months’ notice to terminate your contract and you will not be required to serve notice. Your last day at work is August 8. You will be paid your terminal benefits including cash in lieu of leave and notice pay by or on October 30”.

The dismissals come at a time when the government is fast-tracking the amendment of the Labour Act whose provisions have been described as grossly unfair and “colonial”.
President Mugabe has summoned Parliamentarians from their recess to consider amendments to the Labour Act this week. Victoria Falls Safari Lodge is said to be in the process of terminating contracts for some of its workers while at Lion Encounter the number of casualties could not be ascertained yesterday.

Nearly 20,000 workers have lost their jobs so far following July 17 Supreme Court ruling that allowed for the dismissal of employees on three months’ notice. This position allows companies to lay off workers on three months notice without going through the expensive retrenchment process.
Econet Wireless, Zimpapers, Zinara, Air Zimbabwe and Grain Marketing Board among others have dismissed workers based on the ruling.

Source: Hotels, tour operators dismiss 250 workers (17/08/15)

Elephant tramples Vic Falls curio seller to death

A Zimbabwean man has been trampled to death by an elephant in the top resort town of Victoria Falls, the authorities announced on Tuesday. 

The 32-year-old man was a curio seller in the town. The Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said in a statement that he was killed on Sunday.

The man, who was with a friend, came face-to-face with a female elephant with a calf. 

"It is reported that the elephant charged at them and the two tried to escape, [but] unfortunately one was attacked and killed," said the parks authority.

The state-run Chronicle newspaper identified the dead man as Member Ncube.

Ncube's friend and fellow curio seller, Cornwell Nkomo, told the paper that before the incident, they had taken refuge in a secluded spot to evade police officers. They were apparently not supposed to be in the area.

The two men stumbled upon the elephant while on their way back to the Big Tree – a large Baobab that is a local landmark popular with tourists.

Nkomo said he and Ncube fled in different directions after the elephant charged. Ncube’s body was later found by game rangers.

The Chronicle reported that vendors who sold their wares near the Big Tree are "usually involved in running battles with the police and [national parks] rangers as people are not allowed in the area without being accompanied by guides because of the dangers posed by wild animals". 

A Zimbabwean professional guide, Quinn Swales, was killed by a lion in Hwange National Park on Monday.

Source: Elephant tramples Zimbabwe curio seller to death (25/08/15)

Lion kills safari guide in Hwange

A safari guide was mauled to death by a lion in Hwange National Park in western Zimbabwe on Monday, a lodge in the park announced.

Hwange National Park was home to Cecil the Lion before the animal was killed in an illegal hunt.

The man has been named as Quinn Swales, 40, according to a statement from Camp Hwange.

Swales was leading a group of tourists on a photographic safari when the male lion "unexpectedly charged", the lodge said.

"It is with deep regret and great sadness that we are able to confirm the death of Quinn Swales, a Camp Hwange Professional Guide, who was fatally mauled by a male lion whilst out on a walking safari this morning," the statement read.

It was posted to the lodge's Facebook page.

"We can confirm that Quinn did everything he could to successfully protect his guests and ensure their safety, and that no guests were injured in the incident," it added.

Users of the page have since posted condolences.

Swales's Facebook page said he was from Trelawney in northern Zimbabwe. Tragically the last photo he posted on August 10 was of Cecil the Lion, who was killed by a US dentist on an illegal hunt in Hwange National Park in early July. Cecil's death caused global outrage, reviving questions about big-game hunting and its sustainability in Africa.

Shelley Cox of African Bush Camps wrote: "Quinn's actions in successfully protecting the lives of his guests is heroic and reminiscent of his outstanding guiding skills, experience and training...

"It is certainly a tragedy and a loss to the guiding fraternity and tourism industry."

Camp Hwange said on its official website that all of its guides were "handpicked to the highest standards".

Source: Lion kills safari guide in Hwange (24/08/15)
More: Tour Guide Killed in Lion Attack Did Everything Right (26/08/15)

Kazungula Bridge to Cut Traveller's Nightmares

Like most travellers particularly between Zambia and Botswana I have always found crossing the Zambezi River by pontoon at Kazungula a terrifying experience because of many accidents in which hundreds of people, including former Southern Province Minister Maimbolwa Sakubita, lost their lives when the pontoon capsised in the 1970s.

Not only that about 15 more people mostly Zambians that included women and children perished when a South African heavy-duty truck tipped over, throwing passengers on board the pontoon into the crocodile-infested and fast-flowing Zambezi River some years later.

For the commercial transporter inordinate delays at Kazungula border crossing, where vehicles ferrying cargo to and from various countries in the region and beyond, are and could be marooned for days if not weeks, translate into huge financial losses and turn-around times.

While the adventurous tourist may often find crossing by pontoon pleasurable, the not-so-brave traveller is forced to cross the river by using the Livingstone-Victoria Falls Town (Zimbabwe)-Kazungula-Kasane route or Lusaka-Chirundu-Harare route and vice-versa.

So every stakeholder was elated in 2005 when it was announced that the Zambian and Botswana governments had agreed to jointly construct a permanent bridge to link the two countries.

Following the announcement I filed a news story from Gaborone and sent it to the late Human Rights Commissioner Arnold Kapelembi (who was still the News Editor at the time I left the Times of Zambia newspaper in 1992) in his elevated capacity as Times Printpak Managing Director) based in Lusaka.

Titled 'Botswana, Zambia agree to build Kazugula bridge' the report, which I reproduce here for the benefit of readers of this column, said:

'Good news to all Kazungula pontoon users - the Botswana and Zambian governments have finally agreed to construct a permanent bridge across the Zambezi/Chobe Rivers to link the two SADC countries.'

It went on: 'Inviting tenders for the project, which is regarded as a giant leap forward and a stimulus to regional economic integration, the Zambia National Tender Board (ZNTB) says the two governments have agreed to promote 'free and unobstructed movement of both cargo and people by 'providing an appropriate bridge structure across the Zambezi River and border control facilities at Kazungula border between the two countries.

Viewed by regional watchers as probably Africa's first step on the road to hosting, for the first time, the FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010, the governments of Zambia and Botswana, through the Ministry of Works and Supply (Zambia) and the Ministry of Works and Transport (Botswana) have approved the development of the bridge project using Build-Operate Transfer (BOT) method.

ZNTB says BOT is one of the modern methods of financing and administering public infrastructure services through Public-Private Partnership initiatives (PPPs). According to ZNTB advertisement (which appeared) in the government-owned Botswana Daily News, this method has been successfully used in developed countries and some parts of Africa.

As a result, the Ministry of Works and Supply, for Zambia, and Works and Transport, for Botswana, intend to carry out design and construction of the following structures at Kazungula:

Road bridge, approximately 800m, and approach roads with high embankments at bridge approaches; and Border control facilities.

ZNTB, on behalf of the Ministry of Works and Supply, for Zambia, and Works and Transport (Botswana) 'now invites eligible consortiums' having proven track record in similar works involving modern techniques to submit their 'express interest'.

The consortium would normally comprise financial institutions, engineers, construction experts, and qualified/experienced concession operators. It says successful BOT bidders will be expected to carry out intensive technical and financial studies in collaboration with the ministries of the two countries, who are the executing agencies,' the article concluded.

However, the project ran into unexpected difficulties when Zimbabwe, which was reeling under economic sanctions imposed by most Western countries (following the controversial 2007 presidential election run-off that President Robert Mugabe won against MDC's Morgan Tsvangirai) but on whose territory part of the Bridge Project was to be constructed, objected unless Harare was guaranteed a stake as one of the major participating countries.

The project was further delayed by 2008 political changes that took place in the two principal cooperating countries - Botswana saw the retirement of President Festus Mogae and accession to power of Lieutenant-General Seretse Khama Ian Khama; and in Zambia - the death of President Levy Mwanawasa and his replacement by former vice president Rupiah Banda.

Although both governments remained stoutly committed to getting the project off the ground, progress was slow in that in Zambia president Banda, who had been elected to finish off Dr Mwanawasa's two years of his five-year term, lost his bid for what would have become his first five-year term to President Michael Sata whose Patriotic Front (PF) scooped the 2011 general election.

The project suffered another setback as President Sata, who initiated unprecedented infrastructural development projects across the country, died in November 2014 - and like Dr Mwanawasa - after only three years in office. But before his demise in a London hospital he had been receiving treatment, however, President Sata and Lt. Gen Khama had dispatched their respective Vice presidents Dr Guy Scott and Dr Ponatshego Kedikilwe (who has since retired) to Kazungula for the ground-breaking ceremony to mark the beginning of the construction of the road and rail bridge in August, 2014.

This was after the project had gone through tender and three companies out of the 26 that had expressed interest had been short-listed in March to undertake construction works. The companies were China Major Bridge Engineering Corporation, Shimizu- Stefanuti Joint Venture and Daewoo E & R of South Korea. A South African bidding company that felt marginalised, if my recollection is correct, protested prompting some would-be sponsors to threaten pulling out.

So, the arrival on the scene of the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) was greeted with a great sigh of relief by government officials, transporters and travellers like myself because their move ensured that the US $60 million financing gap that the project faced would no longer be a hindrance.

I do recall that upon his return to Gaborone, former Lusaka-based civil engineer Herbert Murray, who, according to him, was among the engineers that were pivotal in the construction of the Ndola-Kitwe Dual Carriageway in the 80s, told me he was in Kasane on private business when the Botswana-Zambia Joint Steering Committee met in the tourist resort town, to tie up a few loose ends.

Zambian officials had indicated that their target date for commissioning of the project that should benefit rural communities in senior chiefs Sekute's and Mukuni's chiefdoms, was August 13, 2014.

The bridge across the Zambezi River at the point where the borders of Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia meet has been the vital missing link on Sub-Saharan Africa's North-South Trade Corridor.

The plan is for the construction of a 923-metre long and 18.5-metre wide bridge with provisions for both rail and road transport. Two one-stop border facilities-one at each end - and access roads will also be built at an estimated total cost of US$259 million, according to initial estimates.

When he visited Zambia at the end of June last year AfDB president Dr Kaberuka pledged that his financial lending institution would work closely with the Botswana and Zambian governments to accelerate construction and that his bank would also accelerate financing procedures because the project was not only important to the economies of Zambia and Botswana but to Africa as a whole.

Source: Kazungula Bridge to Cut Traveller's Nightmares (22/08/15)