Chronicle EditorFairness Moyana in Hwange, Sunday News Correspondent
A delegation from Ba Phalaborwa Municipality of South Africa’s Limpopo Province’s last week visited Hwange Local Board (HLB) and Hwange Rural District Council (HRDC) where it toured various projects as part of the three parties’ efforts to identify areas of cooperation and possibly enter into a twinning arrangement.
The twinning arrangement is expected to create synergies and unlock investment opportunities in Hwange.
The South African delegation that was led by Ba Phalaborwa Municipality Mayor, Councillor Merriam Malatji arrived in the country on Sunday and left on Wednesday after touring several projects of the two Zimbabwean local authorities.
Clr Malatji expressed confidence that the twinning initiative would go a long way in achieving sustainable development that would transform people’s lives.
“We have realised some many similar aspects between Hwange and Ba Phalaborwa, an indication that the twinning initiative will be seamless and plausible. We also appreciate the differences identified and look forward to learning from one another in an effort to come up with best practices to achieve the common goal of sustainable development in our communities,” she said.
Clr Malatji commended the country’s warm hospitality.
“We are delighted to be here. Upon arrival we were received with warmth and throughout our stay we experienced genuine comfort and care. The hospitality of the people of Hwange is recommendable,” said Clr Malatji.
The projects that the delegation visited include a baobab fruit processing in Change ward which is spearhead by women, Sidinda Wildlife Camp and Leona Clinic under HRDC.
A visit was also made to the site of where HLB intends to build a civic centre, a quarry mine and council’s new offices. They expressed interest in the numerous untapped investment opportunities especially in the mining, tourism and manufacturing sectors.
There is also a high possibility of Hwange District attracting potential investors from South Africa. HRDC chief executive officer Mr Phindile Ncube expressed optimism at the engagements arguing that the purpose of the visit was primarily to strengthen relationships and improve on service delivery.
“The purpose of this event was to strengthen relationships between the three local authorities and to identify areas of cooperation with the view of improving service delivery. If we have our counterparts coming here from Ba Phalaborwa and we identify areas or gaps for example in tourism we can then have investors coming in from that end or other areas.
“For example, their strength is on marula that’s why they have the Marula Festival while this side we have baobab they have seen how we process it and support women so they can also tap from there. They also have plenty of baobab trees like we do, so they can then emulate if not do better than us,” he said.
The delegation was treated to a tour of the Victoria Falls rainforest and game drive in Hwange National Park. In the spirit of ubuntu, the three local authorities exchanged gifts as the Ba Phalaborwa Municipality Mayor extended her invitation to host a delegation from Hwange sometime next month over three days.
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