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Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
LOCAL authorities in Matabeleland North Province have said that the twinning arrangement between the province and Namibia’s Omaheke region will unlock foreign direct investment opportunities and position them for growth.
Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs Minister, Richard Moyo, last week led his Namibian counterpart, Mr Festus Tulonga Ueitele, and Namibian Ambassador to Zimbabwe, Ms Balbina Daes Piennar, on a tour of the province’s capital projects.
The crew identified eight possible areas of cooperation with the signing of memorandum of understanding (MoU) expected soon, paving way for operational projects. The visiting team toured projects in Bubi, Umguza, Lupane, Binga and Hwange districts and ended with a debriefing meeting in Victoria Falls last Friday.
Matabeleland North has seven rural district councils namely Binga, Bubi, Hwange, Kusile, Nkayi, Tsholotsho, Umguza and two local boards-Lupane Local Board and Hwange Local Board.
Victoria Falls is the only municipality making a total of 10 local authorities in the province’s seven districts. Each local authority will identify a Namibian counterpart to twin with.
The Omaheke region needs expertise in agriculture, farm management, charcoal and production, minerals and local governance. In separate interviews in Victoria Falls, local authorities’ chief executives said they hoped to benefit from exchange of ideas and export of human capital.
Victoria Falls Town Clerk, Mr Ronnie Dube, said the resort town was eyeing a twinning partnership with Gobabis Municipality, the provincial capital for Omaheke region.
“As a local authority we want to twin with Gobabis Municipality. We have identified areas on interest and discussions are still at preliminary level and we will be sending a team to firm up the discussions,” he said.
Mr Dube said Victoria Falls will benefit from sending experts as consultants in various local governance fields.
“We will send town planners and engineers among other experts while tapping from their skills in water equipment as we want to leverage on these relations. There is also a lot of potential to harness tourism and bring visitors to our destination,” he said.
In December, a delegation of chief executive officers from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa would visit Victoria Falls on a familiarisation tour, Mr Dube said. This was one of the initiatives they would want to see happening after twinning with Gobabis.
Hwange Local Board chief executive, Mr Ndumiso Mdlalose, said the bilateral arrangements would lessen red tape through ease of doing business.
He said HLB would benefit from knowledge and skills transfer as well as in development of renewable energy.
“We have been looking for investors and partners and with this opportunity we’re already in preliminary talks especially in solar energy production. They will also learn service delivery benchmarking from us where minimum standards are set. We are required by Government that our budgets incorporate benchmarking where we use peer to peer review programmes and assess and score each other to identify performance improvement areas,” said Mr Mdlalose.
“We have institutions of higher learning, which produce quality human resources hence our people can be exported to Namibia as consultants.”
Lupane Local Board chairperson, Mrs Monica Ngwenya, said the twinning arrangement was an opportunity for the province to share ideas with the outside world to be able to tap into vast virgin natural resources.
“We will obviously benefit from look and learn visits and are hopeful for investment as a local authority and province at large. We have vast resources such as gas, timber, honey and minerals among others and this initiative will assist as we implement devolution of power,” she said.
“What we have been lacking as a province is funding and investors and this exposure to the region will obviously lure some investors.”
Binga chief executive, Mr Joshua Muzamba, said the twinning initiative was an opportunity for Binga to wake up.
“We’ll share experiences and best practices in service delivery and benchmarking. We will send our experts to tap from their expertise especially in tourism and solar energy because they have viable solar farms. We also have to benefit from the Kaza Uni visa and other sectors such as agriculture, refuse management and road infrastructure. We will also supply them with fodder, culture and crafts, which will obviously boost our growth,” he said.
Hwange Rural District Council chief executive, Mr Phindile Ncube, said there was need for more time to identify opportunities. Tsholotsho RDC chairperson Clr Esau Siwela also said the visit was an eye opener. — @ncubeleon.
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Londile Moyo