Zimbabwe Revamps Visa Regime

As part of efforts to boost the tourism sector, government has relaxed the visa regime for 37 countries including China while it has removed visa requirements for all visitors from the Southern African Development Community. Zimbabwe uses a migration management system with a three tier visa model classified into categories A, B and C. Category A refers to countries whose nationals are exempt from visa requirements while those in category B obtain visas at the port of entry on arrival. Category C nationals are required to apply for visas prior to travel.

Addressing journalists in Harare on Thursday, Immigration principal director Clemence Masango said with immediate effect China, along with 36 other countries, had been moved from Category C to B. The other countries include Equatorial Guinea, Iran, Algeria, Turkey and Cuba. All SADC countries have now been migrated to Category A.

"This new position completes the circle and process for us in respect of all SADC countries in line with the fulfilment of the spirit and objectives of the SADC protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons," Masango said.

Only Angola and Madagascar had remained outside category A.

Masango however said while China is now in Category B, there are still some conditions attached to the eligibility criteria for its nationals.

"Only Chinese tourists travelling as a group cleared by tour operators and travel agencies in China qualify. Secondly, Chinese business persons and other citizens of China as approved by their Government will continue to apply for visas online, a process which takes about five days to complete."

A total 83 countries still remain in Category C and their nationals need to apply for and obtain visas prior to travelling to Zimbabwe.

"This new position is in response to the voice of players and interest groups in the tourism and hospitality industry who want to see more facilitation of movement of persons than control," he said.

Masango said the Visa regime revision is part of an ongoing process and consultations will continue with a view to further relax visa controls in order to make travel easier and Zimbabwe a more favourable and accessible destination.

Masango also said consultations are ongoing to re-institute the KAZA-UNIVISA project which stopped in December last year with a view of resuming the system in this month.

Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer Karikoga Kaseke said the process is a positive step in the right direction but more needs to be done as well.

Official figures show that Zimbabwe has been receiving between 3 800 and 5 500 Chinese tourists per annum, against total arrivals of between 80 000 and 100 000 in neighbouring countries despite Harare and Beijing having signed the Approved Destination Status agreement in 2003 aimed at encouraging nationals from the Asian giant to prioritize Zimbabwe.

Source: Zimbabwe Revamps Visa Regime (03/03/16)

Drought taking its toll on Victoria Falls

Tourists staring in wonder at the full force of the Zambezi River cascading over Victoria Falls struggle to believe the region is suffering one of its worst droughts, but local guide Patrick Sakala knows all is not well.

Flows have dropped to 30-year lows at the waterfall straddling Zambia and Zimbabwe’s shared border as poor rains and soaring temperatures take their toll across southern Africa.

“At this time of year, you usually wouldn’t be able to hear me over the thunderous roar,” said Sakala, pointing at rocks piercing through a vast sheet of water dropping 100m, twice the height of Niagara Falls in Canada.

“You wouldn’t see those rocks. You might not see anything because of the smoke all around you,” he added, referring to the clouds of mist thrown up from the swells in the chasm beneath the falls, known locally as “The Smoke That Thunders”.

Downstream, Kariba Lake – the world’s largest man-made reservoir – is only 12 percent full, compared to 53 percent at the same time last year, according to the Zambezi River Authority (ZRA).

Kariba is the water source for a hydroplant which provides Zimbabwe and Zambia with much of their electricity, and power cuts have become a daily occurrence this year.

The plant could stop producing power completely in six months if water levels continue to fall, deepening economic pain and increasing poverty, an official said last month.

“It’s been terrible,” said Gloria Masheka, who runs a guest house in nearby Livingstone.

“The price of everything has gone up, we don’t have electricity for sometimes eight hours a day.

“All people talk about is how they don’t have power and can’t afford food.”

The drought has been blamed on a severe El Niño weather pattern unsettling climates across the world.

On the continent, it is expected to hit 49 million people from Malawi to Namibia, South Africa and Botswana, leaving about 14 million going hungry, the UN World Food Programme says.

African governments are requesting billions of dollars in aid as the unusually dry period ruins farmland, kills cattle and cuts off water supplies.

South Africa is suffering its worst drought in a century, likely to push 50 000 people below the poverty line, according to estimates from the World Bank.

The dams’ levels have dropped 16 percent since October and are expected to take three years to recover.

The dry, hot conditions risk hurting the region’s vital tourism industry as lush safari parks are scorched brown, mighty rivers such as the Zambezi are diminished, and even Victoria Falls loses some of its marvel.

“It’s still spectacular,” said Rory, a US tourist peering off the “knife-edge” bridge which sways high above a winding river gorge under the waterfall.

“It’s sad what the drought has done here. I hope people still come to see this beautiful country.”

Drought taking its toll on Victoria Falls (03/03/16)

African Sun hikes prices

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

AFRICAN Sun hotel group’s new management in Zimbabwe, Legacy Group, has hiked rates for its facilities casting doubts on affordability of hotel services by locals.

A snap survey at the group’s Victoria Falls hotels – Elephant Hills Resort, Kingdom Hotel and Victoria Falls Hotel – has shown that rates for single, double, executive, deluxe and executive rooms have been increased although management said the change was minor.

The increases have also been effected on conferencing rates and recently organisers of an unnamed seminar had to reschedule their meeting from Elephant Hills to Inyanga because of high rates.

In an e-mail response, the group’s chief executive officer, Edwin Shangwa, confirmed the increase in rates on all accommodation facilities, which he said was triggered by high cost of supplies.

“There have been minor rate increases throughout the group in line with the current increase of essential supplies by suppliers,” he said.

Shangwa said the new developments were a result of a massive marketing drive regionally after the coming in of Legacy Group.

“The hotels continue to be fully functional with mixed use facilities covering all guest requirements be it conference, business or leisure.

“As a result of the introduction of the Legacy Group, an internationally recognised brand, there has been greater sales and marketing through the legacy worldwide networks, which may have created the perception the business model is shifting – it’s not. The hotels remain a property with the capabilities to welcome and accommodate every guest’s specific needs,” he said.

Domestic and regional rates at Elephant Hills and Kingdom Hotel are now $198, up from $180 for single rooms and $242 up from $212 for double rooms.

Executive rooms are now $396, deluxe $572 up from about $500 while the presidential suite, which used to be around $700, now costs about $2,500.

The rates are for bed and breakfast only.

At Victoria Falls Hotel, a single room now goes for $346 up from $329 for both regional and domestic clients. Rates for Hwange Safari Lodge could not be established.

The group also runs Holiday Inn, Troutbeck Resort and Monomotapa Hotels. Conference rates are negotiated.

Indications are that the group wants to make its hotels resort destinations and move away from being ordinary facilities.

This comes at a time when average hotel occupancies have been hovering between 40 percent and 51 percent last year with only 100 percent being realised during the festive season.

The drop is blamed on liquidity in the region where the rand is also on a free fall.

The group a few months ago closed its Beitbridge branch following the board’s recommendation as “the hotel was unlikely to return to profitably in the foreseeable future and keeping it open would only have eroded value for the broader group.”

The new management last month terminated contracts for dozens of its workers as part of measures to streamline its operations to add to scores that lost their jobs after last year’s Supreme Court ruling that gave employers the green light to terminate contracts on three months’ notice.

The tourism industry has been facing viability challenges for sometime in the wake of suppressed arrivals. The situation has also been blamed on high charges for services with players seeking the scrapping of the 15 percent tourism levy, which was introduced last year.

Source: African Sun hikes prices (03/03/16)

Chinese Sending Zambians To Poach In Zim - Zambian Minister

By Judith Sibanda

ZAMBIA'S Tourism minister Patrick Ngoma has bemoaned the increasing number of his countrymen caught illegally hunting for animals in Zimbabwe’s nature reserves. Ngoma said he was sorry that Zambians were now to blame for most of Zimbabwe’s poaching crimes.

Conservationists and police, especially in Matabeleland North say the majority of poachers roaming national parks in the province are from neighbouring Zambia. Last Friday, a suspected Zambian poacher was gunned down by Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority rangers near Matetsi in Hwange. The Zambian was killed after the rangers laid an ambush on a group of suspected poachers leading to a heavy exchange of gun fire.

Earlier in the week, Victoria Falls police had retrieved two bodies of suspected Zambian poachers that were found floating on the Zambezi River after escaping another ambush on February 6. Police said their bodies were still kept at the mortuary.

"We still stuck with their bodies. Their families, eight of them together with police came yesterday but they couldn't identify them because of the body state. They refused to take them and suggested to call more relatives. Everywhere in Zambian newspapers we are insulted for killing their people and throwing them into the river but that is not true." said officer commanding Victoria Falls police Jairos Chiwona.

Meanwhile, one of the suspected members of the syndicate Christopher Malasa Mandaya (35) appeared at the Victoria Falls Magistrates' Court facing charges of illegal possession of firearms and dagga.

He was not asked to plead on the charges before Lindiwe Maphosa and was further remanded in custody to March 1. He was arrested in Jambesi and was found in possession of 25 rounds of ammunition, a gun, two axes and butcher knives and two kilograms of dagga.

Ngoma told Radio VOP that some of the poachers were being used by Chinese nationals to hunt elephants in Zimbabwe for their ivory. He said the increasing number of poachers of Zambian origin being caught on Zimbabwe was becoming a humiliation for the neighbouring country.

“In Zambia we are putting measures to make sure that poaching by our people is controlled but the fact that they are now failing to penetrate (our parks) has forced them to cross over to other countries like Zimbabwe, Angola, Botswana and Namibia to commit the offences,” he said.

“We had gone further with investigations, where we noticed that they are working in collaboration with Chinese nationals who give them a bit of money to poach in neighbouring countries and then they sacrifice their lives because most of them when they cross those borders they are killed.”

Ngoma said to solve poaching cases, drones would be deployed in the SADC region to track the culprits.

“What we intend to do as neighboring countries, is that we must create a security force for KAZA (Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area) and this force must be done hand in hand, I’m talking about security officers in all sides,” he said.

“We must create system, which will make them communicate easily without the poachers themselves or the foreigners who are sending our people to go and poach and that way we will be able to achieve our goals.

“It is very humiliating because everywhere it is now known that Zambians are poaching and they shoot back.

“In Zambia we have introduced drones so that they can be able to spy on our behalf when they spot something they will be able to report and our plan is to have drone dotted all over the region, hence the reason of escaping to Zimbabwe mainly.”

Last year, Zimbabwe lost nearly 100 elephants to poachers, mainly at the Hwange National Park.
Environment minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri said 11 poachers were shot dead by security agents in 2015 alone.

Source: Chinese Sending Zambians To Poach In Zim - Zambian Minister (24.0/16)

Dawn Properties Look to Acquire Kingdom at Victoria Falls

Dawn Properties is set to acquire 50 percent of Makasa Sun Hotel property in Victoria Falls from Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe while negotiations are ongoing for the other half from Barclays Pension Fund. The property is trading under African Sun's Kingdom Hotel. Barclays Bank last week announced that it had sold its 50 percent stake in Makasa Sun. In a statement, Barclays Bank said that Dawn Properties will pay $7 500 000 within 30 days of concluding on the conditions precedent from which selling costs shall be paid.

The balance is to be paid in instalments over a period of up to 12 years on interest charges which will be reviewed annually in reference to an agreed interest rate benchmark. Currently the majority of the Dawn Properties' portfolio is in hotel properties which are operated by African Sun Limited.

Source: Dawn Properties to Acquire Makasa Sun Hotel (29/02/2016)

African Sun clears $200k Vic Falls debt

African Sun Limited has paid more than $200,000 to clear its outstanding rates and water bills to the Victoria Falls Municipality.

In June last year, the hotel group was issued with summons in respect of the outstanding rates amounting to $383,000 owed by three of its hotels — The Victoria Falls Hotel, the Elephant Hills Resort and The Kingdom Hotel — in the resort town.

The amount took into account an increase of at least 250 percent on the rates and water bills. The listed hotel group had stopped payments as the company felt the increment was too high at a time the company’s hotel units were operating below capacity.

After it was issued with summons, the group engaged the council with a view to break the impasse.
African Sun has 731 rooms in Victoria Falls, about 66 percent of the resort town’s accommodation capacity.

African Sun and the town council agreed to resolve the matter out of court after the former came up with a debt payment plan, which was accepted by the municipality.

The hotel group had proposed a rate, which would have seen it paying a total $203,000 to clear the arrears. But the council declined to reduce the rate and instead offered a discount on condition that its proposed amount was paid by December 31.

The group proposed monthly rates of $7,800 for Victoria Falls Hotel, $7,500 for Elephant Hills and $5,500, $1,271 for the Kingdom at Victoria Falls Hotel.

Council had proposed much higher rates at $9,620,22, $9,426,73 and $8,409,31. The municipality had hiked rates from $3,018, $2,985 and $1,271 respectively, for the group’s three hotels.

The council argued that it could not reduce rates, which had been gazetted, midway into the financial year unless it was to be done through a supplementary budget and all processes were followed to either reverse or reduce the gazetted rates. But they promised the “proposal will certainly be considered in the budget for 2016.”

African Sun paid a total of $202,890 in three equal installments of $67,630 by December.
“It’s the company’s view that all due process was followed and this matter was concluded and the municipality accepted the company’s proposal. All the arrears to Victoria Falls Municipality from July 2015 to the end of December 2015 for the three hotels were paid in full,” the hotel group said. The municipality said it acknowledged the difficulties faced by African Sun considering the difficulties in the business environment.

“Victoria Falls in its full special council meeting held on October 22, 2015 resolved to accept your proposal in its entirety contained in your letter dated October 9 2015. The council appreciates the finality of this matter, which was made possible by your commitment and sincerity in the discussion on the matter,” the council said.

African Sun, however, said that the only outstanding matter is that the municipality of Victoria Falls has not yet approved the proposed rate for 2016 for its three hotels.

Source: African Sun clears $200k Vic Falls debt (24/02/16).

‘165 days left before Kariba shuts down’

Kariba Dam is now left with capacity to generate power for only 165 days, unless significant water inflows are recorded in the next few months, a Zesa Holdings official has said.

BY TARISAI MANDIZHA

Speaking during a tour of Kariba Power Station last Friday, the power station’s general manager, Kenneth Maswera said water levels in the dam were now at 477,15m which is 1,65m above the minimum power generation threshold. He said these were the lowest levels recorded since the 1992 drought.

“If we are taking a cubic centimetre a day, it will take 165 days, but that is if we don’t get any water inflows,” he said.

“It looks like it has been almost constant, but the water levels are going down and it’s a fact. We have not received any significant inflows, basically the level is going to continue going down if we don’t get any water flows into the lake.”

Maswera said power generation at Kariba Hydropower Station had further declined to 285MW against a generation capacity of 750 megawatts (MW) due to
dwindling water levels in Kariba dam.

“We are 1,65m above the level to generate power and if we go below this level, we will not be able to generate. But there is enough water for fishing and other activities,” he said.

Maswera said Kariba power generation was constructed and designed to operate between 475,5m and 488,50m.

He said the expansion of Kariba South Power Station, which was expected to add 300MW into the national grid was now 40% complete.

The $533 million expansion project, which includes development costs to be met by Zimbabwe Power Company, is being undertaken by a Chinese firm, Sino Hydro and is targeted for completion by 2018.

According to reports, to date, China Exim Bank has disbursed the first tranche of about $100 million under the engineering procurement contract valued at $354 million.

Zimbabwe is generating 1 355MW, with Hwange producing 341MW, Kariba 285MW, Harare 17MW and Munyati 28MW. Imports contributed 450MW against a forecast demand of 1 375MW.

Zesa spokesperson, Fullard Gwasira said despite dwindling water levels at Kariba Dam, the power utility company was working on a number of measures to address power shortages, which include importation of 300MW of electricity from South Africa and another 40MW from Mozambique, Dema emergency diesel power plant and the solar water heating programme among many others.

Zambezi River Authority chief executive officer, Munyaradzi Munodawafa said the situation at Kariba was bad.

Kariba Dam services both Zambia and Zimbabwe and on a daily basis the power stations in the two countries consume between 900 to 1 000 cubic metres of water.

Munodawafa, however, said more rains were expected between this and next month and this will improve the water levels to sustain the two countries up to the winter period.

Source: ‘165 days left before Kariba shuts down’ (22/02/16)

Graph Source: Zambezi River Authority