Covid -19 pandemic mauls Zimparks wildlife operations

The novel coronavirus pandemic has hit hardest all wildlife conservation efforts by the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (Zimparks) as its main lifeline earnings from foreign tourism have dwindled to critical levels.

Zimparks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo told the Herald recently that lack of tourism revenues had badly affected his organisation to an extent that the authority would soon fail to pay its more than 2000 workers and meet other financial obligations.

“The situation is bad and very soon we will not be able to pay our rangers,” he said. “Tourism is dead for now and we are appealing to the Government to allow us to open our parks and other income generating activities.

“Zimparks relies heavily from tourism earnings for its operational activities. Wildlife tourism plays a critical role in our foreign currency generation through game viewing and licensed hunting. We also use the proceeds to respond to human wildlife conflicts.”

Tourism in Zimbabwe and most other African countries has been hard hit by coronavirus lockdowns with hotel bookings canceled, safaris postponed and cultural tours stopped.

“Zimparks revenues have fallen drastically – by up to nearly 100 percent,” Farawo said.

“We are struggling to stay afloat and want the Government to allow us to open tourism activities to enable us to pay rangers and meet our mandate. Between January and June this year, we received 973 cases of human wildlife conflict cases and we only managed to respond to only half of the cases.

“We need money to pay rangers allowances, we need money for fuel and patrols. The situation is dire and if we don’t pay rangers and support their operations, this might pose serious problems for the country’s wildlife conservation efforts.”

The Victoria Falls, the country’s premier resort spot, national parks and other recreation sites under Zimparks have closed down as a result of the Covid-19 outbreak which has killed more than 477 000 people out of the over 9,2 million confirmed cases of coronavirus across the world.

Several safari operators have shut down their operations while local communities living close to the conservation areas have also been affected.

Lockdowns have piled financial pressures and strain to tourism operators and communities that depend on wildlife tourism.

“We are appealing to all other stakeholders for support,” Farawo said. “We need help and we appreciate all the assistance we are getting from our partners. It’s not enough and we need help to fill in all the critical gaps.”

Zimparks requires between US$20 million and US$25 million a year to fund its wildlife conservation activities.

“We are in the midst of the hunting season and our revenue is zero due to the Covid – 19 lockdowns. The impact has been severe and more than 40 people have been killed by wild animals while 38 others were wounded,” said Farawo.

“Elephants, crocodiles, lions and buffaloes are still a major problems and we are incapacitated to respond effectively whenever we receive distress calls from local communities living close to wildlife conservation areas.”

The tourism sector in Zimbabwe and most other African countries have suffered badly due to the Covid -19 outbreak.

It is estimated that more than 70 million tourists visited Africa last year, according to the UN World Tourism Organization to enjoy safari tours, game drives and trophy hunting.

But with airports and borders now closed, most of this income has been lost.

Fears abound that the loss of revenue will increase poaching activities as impoverished families search for food to survive and game patrols weaken.

Zimparks does not receive government funding and it largely depends on tourism revenue to run their operations and care for the animals and plants in protected areas.

“Without money we cannot do frequent patrols as we need fuel for rangers. We need food and allowances for rangers to go on patrol,” said Farawo.

“Zimparks needs to patrol about 13 percent of this country to protect our wildlife and ensure the survival of the tourism sector. The Hwange National Park is almost the size of Belgium and we need resources to patrol and protect our wildlife.”

Source: Covid -19 pandemic mauls Zimparks wildlife operations (30/06/20)

Zimbabwe's striking nurses declare total shutdown after govt snub

HEALTH workers in the country's public hospitals Monday declared a complete shutdown of the sector after government continued to pay a deaf ear to their plight.

Zimbabwe nurses downed tools some two weeks in protest over low wages and poor working conditions.

They have further rejected government's 50% salary hike coupled with US$75 monthly allowance.

The Zimbabwe Nurses Association, in a Memorandum to all nurses in government-owned health institutions, said health workers had reached a breaking point and could not survive on their meagre monthly earnings equivalent to about US$40.

The association said "every affected member must immediately stay at home".

"Government's lack of action, and more importantly the refusal to engage the membership leadership on the on-going job action suggests to us that it has still not accepted that its workers are incapacitated," the memorandum, dated June 29 reads.

"Had it so accepted, urgent steps to address this situation would have been taken the moment we advised of our intention to withdraw labour."

The nurses said while the government would not want them to make reference to the parallel market rate, reality on the ground was that pricing for goods and services was pegged against parallel market rates, currently at over US$1:100.

"For every US$100.00, a person will get ZW$10,000.00. Using this measure, it means the majority of nurses are earning anything between US$30 – US$40. It is the rate we are faced with when we have to transact even in established supermarkets.

"To put this in perspective, if one is to walk into a supermarket today with ZW$1 ,000 (being one third of the majority of nurses salaries, one would only be able to buy 2 litres cooking oil, two kg of sugar, 2 litres of drink, 2 kg of rice and 2 loaves of bread."

The nurses association said despite having to buy groceries, the health workers were also faced with other expenses including rent, school fees, medical fees and other essentials.

"For those who own cars, they cannot even fuel it up to full tank anymore because it now costs more than their salaries to do so.

"Therefore, the reality which any reasonable person will accept is that we are incapacitated from attending work, even if we wanted to," the nurses said.

The nurses described their salaries as "slave wages" adding that under the circumstances, they were not different from the unemployed.

"Having discussed this with the association's executive, we hereby call upon every nurse in Zimbabwe, from those working at a rural clinic in the most remote parts of the country, all the way up to those working at the central hospitals, to immediately do the following; "For those who have not been going to work, continue withholding your labour. To those who have been subsidising our employer by going to work, mostly because you may have an alternative source of income, we call upon you to reconsider this and withdraw your labour as well."

While nurses in Zimbabwe were getting an average US$40 a month, in South Africa, the same are getting at least R17 000, which translates to more than US$1000.

In Zambia, the least paid nurse gets US$400.

"We have taken this opportunity to write to our constituency of nurses just so as to reinforce what we are all going through.

"Currently, the RBZ trading rate of the Zimbabwean Dollar to the United States Dollar is at $57.30. What this means is that for every US$100, a person would legally get ZW$5,730.00."

"0ur survey has shown us that the majority of workers are not being paid ZW$5,730.00. What this means is that the ordinary nurse is earning far below US$100, even using the already rejected 50% increment offered by the government."

Source: Zimbabwe's striking nurses declare total shutdown after govt snub (30/06/20)

Thieves steal US$50 000 worth of solar panels at Hwange National Park

Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter

THIEVES have stolen about US$50 000 worth of solar panels installed to pump water for wildlife in at Hwange National Park.

The Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) has offered a reward of US$2 500 for information leading to recovery of the panels and apprehension of suspects.

The game park is home to wild animals like elephants, lions, zebras, giraffes and rhinos that draw tourists from around the world.

Vast stretches of the scenic animal sanctuary use borehole water and about 80 percent of the boreholes are solar powered.

Without solar power, thousands of animals may succumb to thirst and this may affect one of the country’s greatest tourist drawcards.

In 2018, national parks received 957 752 tourists.

The tourism sector is estimated to have generated $1,050 billion in receipts from international tourists, marking a seven percent growth from $917 million in 2017.

Zimbabwe recorded 2,6 million international tourist arrivals in 2018, 6 percent up from 2,4 million received in 2017.

Zimparks spokesperson Mr Tinashe Farawo yesterday said: “We have a problem of people who are stealing solar panels. We have recorded several incidents where solar panels have been stolen and we are worried that if we continue losing solar panels at this rate, we may not be able to continue pumping water for wildlife.”

He said in some cases the solar panels were destroyed by elephants at watering holes.

“We have lost US$50 000 worth of solar panels and this means we can’t pump water for animals if this continues. We are offering a reward for information that can lead us to recover the property or arrest suspects,” said Mr Farawo.

ZimParks installed solar power on a majority of boreholes especially in Hwange National Park with the help of conservation partners including tourism players, which is now incapacitated by the Covid-19 induced lockdowns.

Sources told the Chronicle that some villagers from surrounding communities working with suspected poachers from Zambia are responsible for vandalism of the solar panels in the national park.

Mr Farawo could not be drawn into commenting about the issue, saying investigations are in progress.

Meanwhile, Mr Farawo said the wildlife authority is on high alert following mysterious death of elephants in Botswana’s Okavango Delta where 110 jumbos had been reported dead last Friday since the start of last month.

Wildlife from the two countries freely migrate across borders.

According to Botswana media, wildlife officials ruled out poaching and poisoning as no ivory was taken. Initial test results also ruled out anthrax leaving the country in mystery about the cause of death.

Botswana has the world’s largest elephant population, at more than 130,000.

Last year dozens of jumbos died both in Zimbabwe and Botswana due to hunger.

Mr Farawo said no elephant deaths have been recorded in Zimbabwe so far.

“On that one there will be need for scientific research but for now we haven’t recorded any incidents. Around this time last year, we had recorded some elephant death incidents but this year nothing has happened hence we are not yet worried but we are monitoring,” he said.

Source: Thieves steal US$50 000 worth of solar panels at Hwange National Park (03/06/20)

Weakening Zimdollar wreaks havoc

MARKET forces have caused havoc on the Zimbabwe dollar on the parallel market, with the exchange rate shooting to US$1:$70.

Last week, from Monday to Saturday, the US$:Zimdollar rate plunged nearly 23%, with tobacco farmers reportedly calling on government to urgently address the currency instability.

The rapid deterioration has dramatically exposed the futility of government's decision to reintroduce the local unit as the sole legal tender in June last year as all efforts to curb the rising exchange rate have fallen flat.

Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor John Mangudya last week told Parliament that parallel market dealers were like coronavirus.

"The Zimdollar experiment and ‘policy missteps' were never going to succeed because the right institutions, i.e a strong and independent central bank; high productivity and production; trust and confidence among others were and are not yet in place.

Economies are not commanded into prosperity," economist Prosper Chitambara tweeted over the weekend.

To mitigate against the growing monetary challenges, the central bank since 2015 has turned to quantitative easing through the issuance of Treasury Bills to increase money supply and encourage lending and investment.

However, Chitambara said this had not worked due to lack of conditions suitable for it.

"It's very easy to run a nominal budget surplus through quantitative easing. The only problem with quantitative easing when you are a highly consumption-oriented economy in an environment of low productivity is that sooner or later, you will end up in a situation where ‘too much money is chasing too few goods'," he said.

The Zimbabwe dollar continues to fall in value due to the currency lacking foreign currency, commodity or market confidence backing.

And with the global coronavirus pandemic, two of Zimbabwe's sources of foreign currency earners exports and foreign remittances are set to be adversely affected, thus weakening the Zimdollar further.

Renowned American economist Steve Hanke rated the Zimdollar as the second junkiest currency in the world.

The main effect of the continued fall of the Zimdollar has been hyperinflation as well as wage and business income erosion that has greatly slowed the economy resulting in an expected double-digit contraction for 2020.

Former Finance minister Tendai Biti reiterated his call for the adoption of the South African rand to stabilise the economy.

"In July 2010 after a meeting in Boksburg, Johannesburg, with Pravin Gordhan (former South African Finance minister), I briefed my principals on the need and imperative of joining the Rand Monetary Union and Sacu [Southern African Customs Union]. The idea was ferociously shot down purely on the grounds of nationalism. South Africa was said to be brash and arrogant," Biti said in a series of tweets last week.

"Be that as it may, adoption of the rand and joining the Rand Monetary Union is the only viable midterm solution. The US$ is overvalued and has appreciated more than 2% in last two years. Zimbabwe must devalue to a stable international currency which is the rand."

As Finance minister, Biti oversaw Zimbabwe's highest consecutive growth rates between 2009 and 2012 since independence based on statistics of the country's gross domestic product at the World Bank.

"With the US$ now trading above $65 on the parallel market, it is time the regime accepted the failure beyond any shadow of doubt of its monetary and exchange rate policies. We have constantly argued that you can rig everything else, but not the economy. An urgent reset is required," he said.

Source: Weakening Zimdollar wreaks havoc (25/05/20)

Fuel shortages, power cuts cripple tourism industry, Zimbabwe

THE prevailing fuel shortages and prolonged power cuts have become the major bottlenecks crippling the growth of the tourism industry.

Tourism industry players who attended last week’s Sanganai/Hlanganani Expo in Bulawayo, complained about fuel shortages and incessant power cuts. They said power cuts have increased cost of doing business as they have to spend more on alternatives. Those who have invested in generators cried foul over inadequate diesel supply.

In an interview at the close of the conference, Tourism Business Council of Zimbabwe (TBCZ) chief executive officer, Mr Paul Matamisa, buttressed the concerns.

“Fuel shortage in the country is so far a major handicap to the growth of the tourism sector. The availability of fuel is really not up to standard if we are looking at tourism,” he said.

“The flow of traffic if people come into Zimbabwe, they aren’t coming to stay in Bulawayo or Harare or the major cities. They want to go to tourist attraction sites like Victoria Falls, Nyanga, and Great Zimbabwe.

“We have to make sure that we create service stations, which are going to be perpetually well provided with fuel, not a question of when you get there (filling station), maybe, because tourists don’t make a journey on a maybe basis.”

As such, Mr Matamisa implored Government to create ever green service stations to support industry operations and movements to various centres by tourists. Asked about how the tourism sector was coping on account of fuel shortages being experienced across the country, Mr Matamisa said:

“Players in the tourism sector are presently running from one service station to another in search of fuel and this is not good for the growth and development of the tourism business as more business hours are being lost.

“So, what we are simply saying is that we require people to have fuel for the business as well and not just for the travellers but the business that is supporting the travellers. If the businesses that facilitate tourist movements don’t have fuel then, there is a challenge”.

TBCZ projects that Zimbabwe’s tourist arrivals will this year grow by a minimum of 10 percent from 2,6 million tourists that visited the country last year. The anticipated growth trajectory in tourist arrivals is on the back of events such as Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo as well as Zimbabwe’s participations at tourism indabas held in other countries such as South Africa and Berlin, German where local players have packaged and marketed the country’s tourism products to international visitors.

Mr Matamisa said they were also pleased that Government has acceded to their request to extend rebates on imported tourism equipment.

“In that regard, we would like to see more of all the tourism sectors being given the rebate facility so that we help them to facilitate growth in those other sectors, which currently do not have rebates.

“For instance, car hire companies have motor vehicles as their main mode of business and we need to assist them so that they are also able to procure up to date and standard vehicles that will be used by tourists.

“We are happy that Government acceded to our request for the coaches and buses for the tour operators.

“They are now in the ring but there are still many other players, restaurants for instance, they need new equipment and so on to upgrade their facilities and all that is required for them to improve business in their sector,” he said.

In the 2019 fiscal policy statement, Finance and Economic Development Minister Professor Mthuli Ncube proposed a rebate of duty on 75 new buses with a carrying capacity of eight to 55 passengers including the driver for the tourism industry.

Source: Fuel shortages, power cuts cripple tourism industry (19/09/19)

Vic Falls seeks load shedding exemption

VICTORIA FALLS councillors have called for the resort town to be exempted from Zesa load shedding — which has also affected water supplies — and left the tourism hub with no electricity.

The town has gone for weeks without water due to the rolling power cuts, prompting the council to supply water to residents using bowsers.

The situation has affected tourism players such as hotels and lodges which cater for both international and domestic tourists.

Ward 1 councillor Margaret Varley, whose area of jurisdiction encompasses most of the resort town’s tourism players, wrote to the chairperson of the Parliamentary Committee on Energy, Gabbuza Joel Gabuza calling for the load shedding exemption.

“As the Parliamentary chair of Energy, we are begging you to help us here in Victoria Falls. No electricity here means no water. Council has made moves to get a dedicated Zesa line for the water take out point on the Zambezi River, the water plant and also the two main reservoirs so that the town water is not affected by load shedding. However there seems to be a lot of talk and not much action,” wrote Varley on Monday.

Valley said Victoria Falls was the face of the country’s tourism industry and there was need to take advantage of tourist activities that brought in foreign
currency, so the town deserved special treatment.

She added that lack of water supplies affected hotels and lodges, schools, clinics and hospitals.

“We are also looking at drilling boreholes around town. Imagine boreholes and water distribution from a fire engine when we live on the edge of one of the
biggest rivers in Africa? All because of Zesa load shedding. Please use your influence to ensure that this matter is treated with the urgency it deserves and a
solution to this water crisis is found before it’s too late,” said Valley.

Ward 6 councillor Ephias Mambume said it was logical for a place of strategic economic importance like Victoria Falls to be exempted from load shedding.

“It’s the tourism capital of Zimbabwe and a special economic zone. The gross domestic product (GDP) of Victoria Falls’ local economy is a significant part of
the national GDP especially in real dollar terms. It generates mostly forex,” he said.

“An outbreak of typhoid or cholera can potentially cost the economy millions of the greenback in terms of tourism revenue and permanently dent the image of the
country.”

Source: Vic Falls seeks load shedding exemption (29/08/19)