Zambia declared free of Yellow Fever by WHO

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared Zambia a yellow fever-free zone after stating that travellers from Zambia to other countries do not require vaccination certificates for the disease to enter other countries in the world.

 Dr Kasonde, the Zambian Health Minister, said the Government had since written to South Africa and Botswana to relook at their demands for certification from travellers from Zambia.

Scientific findings by the WHO conducted in Zambia in 2013 had proved that there was low yellow fever potential exposure status as communicated by the body's director general to the Ministry of Health.

"This means that travellers from Zambia do not need vaccination certificates for yellow fever in order to enter any country in the world. Of course, the final decisions are made by respective countries. We have written to South African and Botswana governments drawing their attention to the scientific findings and we await their responses," Dr Kasonde said.

Source:  AllAfrica 18/12/14

Zimbabwe coins introduced to end change shortage

The Zimbabwe Reserve Bank (RBZ) on Thursday introduced $10 million worth of special bond coins into the market to ease the shortage of small denominations of the United States dollar.

Zimbabwe adopted multi-currencies in 2009 after it was forced to introduce its inflation battered dollar but business has been struggling to deal with a shortage of United States coins.

The government has been struggling to find lasting solutions to the problem of leaving Zimbabwean retailers to devise a variety of solutions to get around the shortage of change but none of them proved satisfactory.

The country's liquidity crisis means shopkeepers and market traders often give change in sweets, airtime for mobile phones and even condoms.

But for small merchants who sell handfuls of tomatoes, onions and lemons to poor people, customers may not always have the luxury of buying a dollar's worth of merchandise.

However, RBZ injected denominations of 1c, 5c, 10c and 25c, while the 50c coin will be introduced in March next year.

Their value would be on par with United States cents and are only for local use.

Similarly, rand coins of 10c, 20c, 50c R1, R2 and R5 worth about R30 million will also be imported to complement the special bond coins.

A total of $20 million worth of bond coins will be imported alongside R20 million worth of rand coins to augment existing stock.

Zimbabwe has exclusively used foreign currency for all transactions since early 2009 after the Zimdollar was rendered worthless by a world record-breaking hyper-inflation.

The US dollar and South African rand are the main currencies used, although about five other currencies are permitted.

The introduction of the special coins has raised fears that government wanted to return the banished Zimbabwe dollar to replace the multicurrency regime.

RBZ boss John Mangudya said the bond coins which were minted outside Zimbabwe would be anchored by a $50 million bond facility from Afreximbank.

"The coins will ease the problem of small change and eliminate the problem of rounding up of prices to a dollar where there is no option to buy more goods and ease the hassle commuters go through trying to break up a dollar to find change," he said.

Source: Zimbabwe coin, change crisis ends The Africa Report (18/12/14)

Rangers drive buffalo from Zim's Vic Falls

Game rangers have driven a large herd of buffalo out of Zimbabwe's prime tourist resort of Victoria Falls, locals said on Thursday.

The buffalo were chased into the busy town in the west of the country by a pride of lions, prompting warnings to residents to be extremely careful.

The herd took refuge near the Sprayview hotel, in the centre of the resort town.

"It was quite a big herd," said Jonathan Hudson, chairperson of the town's hospitality association.

"The lions split the herd into two, but then the National Parks [rangers] and the Victoria Falls anti-poaching unit, they managed to move them back out of town.

"No injuries, just a lot of excitement. It has happened quite a while back, but not for a long time."

Warnings circulating on social media from Victoria Falls on Wednesday read: "Stay away from the bush. Do not walk along paths surrounded by bush. It is very dangerous and the buffalo have been terrorised by people and the lions."

Residents of outlying suburbs of Victoria Falls sometimes contend with wandering game, but the animals rarely venture into the centre of the town.

- SAPA

Souce:  Rangers drive buffalo from Zim's Vic Falls

Santoga Project an Insult to Vic Falls?

By Isdore Guvamombe

Victoria Falls town has largely remained a natural and remote vestige, making this world class tourist attraction one of the Best World Heritage sites. Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi has declared that the falls must remain so natural that if the first European to visit, David Livingstone who died in 1863, and the Tonga men Suzi and Chuma who showed Livingstone the place were to resurrect today, they would easily find their way around.
It is the unadulterated nature of Victoria Falls that has kept it ticking so much that any new project to be implemented must be carefully planned.
Of late there has been an attempt by Africa Albida to implement a $3,5 million zoo, disguised as an amusement park, on an animal corridor between Victoria Falls Safari Lodge and the Crocodile Farm, opposite the swathe of land between Elephant Hills Hotel and A'Zambezi River Lodge.
Dubbed Santoga, the project's main feature is a zoo, where wildlife will be displayed, while replicas of all tourist attractions in the country from Great Zimbabwe to Kariba will be erected.
"There will be shows throughout the day and lots of interaction with wildlife and hi-tech elements. The project is expected to bring major benefits to the Victoria Falls community, with spin offs to include the creation of more than 1 500 jobs," said Dave Glynn, AAT group chairman.
While job creation and new projects are welcome but wildlife is the mainstay of Zimbabwe's tourism and tourists the world over come not because we have the best hotels but parks where wildlife roam wild and free.
Several questions have been asked about how the game-drive industry in Victoria Falls, will be affected by the Santoga project.

Questions are being asked about how the blockage of the animal corridor that has been giving wildlife access to the Zambezi River, will deal a blow to the teeming wildlife.
Those who have driven along the road past Elephant Hills towards A'Zambezi River Lodge will testify to the amount of wildlife traffic, especially the impala and elephants that have left that corridor a stunted Mopane bush shrubbery. To block such a corridor is not only insensitive to the plight of wildlife but is utterly disgusting to conservationists.
The Victoria Falls Municipality and all and sundry in the town must have been sleeping on duty to allow the project, whose layout, infrastructure, design and content plans are very well advanced with completion set for July 2016.
A zoo is certainly not the best thing for Victoria Falls, never.
Not this time. Any project that drives away wildlife from Victoria Falls or unjustifiably violates wildlife rights is not suitable for a place like Victoria Falls.
The Santoga project needs to be reviewed and re-designed to ensure that it does not deface or soil the World heritage status of Victoria Falls.

Source:  Santoga Project an Insult to Vic Falls (16th December 2014)

See Also

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (31st December 2009) Albida Tourism in $12m expansion drive.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (16th December 2014) Santoga Project an Insult to Vic Falls?.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (31st December 2014) Paradise lost?.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (21st April 2015) Work on $18M Victoria Falls Santonga captive animal park starts.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (24th April 2015) Vic Falls recreational park to open in 2017.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (27th April 2015) $18m park set for Vic Falls.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (15th May 2015) Santonga Project rattles Vic Falls.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (22nd May 2015) Santonga Project: The untold story.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (8th June 2015) ‘Santonga is not a zoo’.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (24th July 2015) Santonga: Tourism game changer?.

Victoria Falls Bits and Blogs (9th September 2019) Santonga Project still on the cards.

Read more on the Keep Victoria Falls Wild website. 

Botswana’s Bushmen resist modernity

Bushmen in Botswana's Kalahari desert are torn between their ancestral traditions and the demands of the modern world. It leaves them struggling to maintain the remnants of their hunter-gatherer way of life.
The blazing sun of the Kalahari desert beats down on a village inhabited by Bushmen in Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve.

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Women with babies sit on blankets in the shade of the doorways of their grass huts.
A man pounds maize under one of the few trees growing in the white sand. Small children chase goats, while older ones try to ride reluctant donkeys.
“This is our ancestral land,” said villager Kesebonye Roy, 29.
“If someone gets sick, we go to the grave site of that person's ancestor to ask for help. We also pray to our ancestors for rain.”
The residents of Molapo re-established their village after the Supreme Court ruled in 2006 that the Botswana government had no right to force Kalahari Bushmen to live in resettlement camps, where they were due to be integrated into modern society.
The camps were on the outskirts of the game reserve and have schools and health centres. The Bushmen were also given land to cultivate.
But many of them preferred to return to Molapo and other villages in remote areas of the 53 000-square-kilometre game reserve, where they are struggling without any modern amenities to preserve remnants of their ancient way of life.
“The Bushmen's connection to their land is very spiritual. Losing it would destroy their identity,” said Fiona Watson from the tribal people's lobby group, Survival International.
About 100 000 Bushmen - also known as the San or Basarwa - remain in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Angola.
They are known as the “first people” and are the oldest inhabitants of southern Africa.
Investigators and visitors have looked to the Bushmen for clues into how humans may have lived in the Stone Age.
But after two millennia of interaction with Bantu populations, and now under heavy pressure from the modern world, the Bushmen no longer provide an adequate model for the hunter-gatherer lifestyle that early modern humans practised for hundreds of thousands of years.
Residents of Molapo - a village of about 50 people - still gather wild berries, herbs and roots for nourishment and medicinal uses.
The government's refusal to supply them with water - allegedly to force them back to resettlement camps to make room for tourism and diamond mines - has left them reliant on the traditional method of obtaining it from the rain, as well as from melons they cultivate or collect in the wild.
But the Bushmen no longer hunt - with the exception of boys shooting birds and rabbits with their bows and arrows - because it is forbidden inside the game reserve.
President Ian Khama also imposed a nationwide hunting ban in January on all species including the eland, the hunting of which was central to the Kalahari Bushmen's culture.
The meat of the eland was shared between community members. Shamanic healers absorbed the invisible energy of the slain animal in trance during communal dances, touching the sick to try to heal them.
Today, there are no healers left in Molapo.
“We are Christians,” Roy said.
The villagers also have chiefs, contradicting their traditional lack of social hierarchies - even if the Molapo chief is not recognised by everyone. All of the male elders have a say when disputes arise.
In the face of such modernisation, Bushman culture is increasingly becoming a spectacle for tourists. The Bushmen now dress in animal skins, dance and make modern versions of their traditional ostrich eggshell jewellery - a trend Bushman organisations are trying to reverse.
“We love who we are,” activist Jumanda Gakelebone said.
“The government is trying to turn us into pastoralists, which we are not. We are ecological hunter-gatherers who have a lot to teach the world about how to coexist peacefully with Mother Earth.”
But, while Gakelebone campaigns for the Bushmen's right to hunt, Molapo residents are already leading a pastoralist lifestyle, living off their cattle and goats - kept illegally inside the game reserve - and cultivating crops.
Many Bushmen outside the game reserve make a living as farm labourers or as tourist guides.
The few who have gone to university “are ashamed of being Bushmen”, Gakelebone said.
“They even change their names to appear more civilised.”
Some of the Molapo residents also feel ambivalent about preserving their traditional way of life.
“We want the same opportunities as everyone else,” said Xamme Gaothobogwe, 58, deploring the fact that children must move to a resettlement camp in order to go to school.
At night, when countless stars fill the sky, some of the villagers come to sit around a fire. The flames reveal the shapes of donkeys standing in the darkness. The chirping of crickets fills the cooler air.
Such moments are good for telling stories - perhaps about animals - a tradition that has not yet died out among the Kalahari Bushmen. 

Source:  Botswana’s Bushmen resist modernity

Vic Falls Council approves $20m budget

VICTORIA FALLS Town Council has approved an increased budget of $20 million for 2015 amid expectations from residents authorities will prioritise improving infrastructure, sewer and water reticulation services.

Nokuthaba Dlamini
Own Correspondent

The budget is an increase from this year’s budget, with a slight difference of $2 510 331.

In an interview on Friday, the resort town’s council treasurer, Thembinkosi Khumalo, said the increase was supported by all residents and businesspeople and it aimed at improving the town’s infrastructure.

“The budget has a very slight difference from that of this year,” he explained.

“The 2015 budget is different because we considered improving our infrastructure. Last year we did not spend much on that.”

Khumalo said the local authority wanted to upgrade sewer ponds and the water system.

“We have set aside $2 million mainly for buying sewer and earth-moving equipment, so that people get health and sanitation to prevent unnecessary diseases,” he said.

“The other increase was $870 100 aimed at buying tippers to upgrade our road network. This town is a tourist destination and our roads have to be standard.

“We need to redo all the roads, especially in suburbs that were not well done and cover all the potholes.”

The town treasurer revealed that they were planning to borrow some money from the government to supplement funds for their projects.

“We agreed to borrow $74 300 from the ministry so that it assists us in accomplishing all our goals,” he said.

“Our people this year experienced water shortages risking their health and as a municipality we need to make sure that we provide clean and safer water for our consumers and improve the infrastructure.”

The resort town for the past months has been dogged by serious water shortages amid revelations that there was not enough equipment to pump water.

Source: Victoria Falls council approves $20m budget (08/12/14)

US$18 million Santonga construction begins

Tourism company Africa Albida Tourism has started the construction of a US$18 million education and entertainment Park in Victoria Falls dubbed Santonga.

Construction of the 80-acre eco-park, adjacent to Victoria Falls Safari Lodge began last month. Santonga will interactively tell the story of Victoria Falls through its history as well as culture and nature.

Africa Albida chief executive Ross Kennedy said construction was delayed because of the lack of a conducive economic and lending environment.

He said the construction of the park would take two and half years to complete and create 150 jobs as well as downstream employment benefits.

The park which is expected to draw 120 000 visitors each year is scheduled to be opened in June 2016.

The site is currently being rehabilitated with more than 600 tonnes of topsoil, 6 000-plus indigenous trees and shrubs as well as the construction of a road, waterholes, weirs and a fence.

“Santonga is a product that will appeal to everybody,” Kennedy said.

“The tours at the park will take between four and half to seven hours and could add half a day’s stay in Victoria Falls.”

He said this extended stay would significantly boost revenue inflows.

Kennedy said improved tourism arrivals had been recorded as demonstrated by the increase of room nights sold this year compared to the same period in 2010.
 
He also revealed that they had carried out a US$1 million upgrade of the 66 rooms of their flagship property, the Victoria Safari Lodge which was completed in July this year.

He said the hotel group was poised to take advantage of the construction of the Victoria Falls airport which was expected to boost tourist arrivals into the resort town.

Africa Albida Tourism has a portfolio of hotels and restaurants in Victoria Falls including its flagship property, the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge.

Source:  US$18 million Santonga construction begins