Chronicle Editor
Sikhumbuzo Moyo, Senior Reporter
BULILIMA Rural District Council is owed more than US$54 000 by local Safari Operator, Mapassa Big Game Hounds, which has not been remitting proceeds from trophy sales.
Council has since cancelled the contract and resolved to take legal action against the Operator in an effort to recover the money.
According to the Community Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (Campfire) remittances ratio, for every trophy sold, 50 percent is remitted to the community for various projects, four percent goes to the Campfire Association while district councils receive a maximum of 15 percent of gross revenue as a levy. The remaining percentage is allocated to wildlife management, such as habitat management, fire control, monitoring, or hiring of game scouts.
Campfire Association is a registered Private Voluntary Organisation whose mandate is to support Community Based Natural Resources Management (CBNRM) in Zimbabwe. Since the 1980s, the Campfire programme has sought to improve the living standards of rural Communities through the sustainable use of a range of natural resources, especially wildlife.
Mapassa Big Game Hounds, according to council, has also not been fulfilling other contractual agreements like drilling of boreholes in communities especially in Ward 10 where four villages have no boreholes, which has forced villages to illegally cross the border to Botswana to draw water from Maitengwe river.
The trophies are mainly from elephants hunting.
The State grants authority to the District Councils to assume responsibility for the management and utilisation of the wildlife in their areas. With assistance from National Parks a quota is set and offered by tender to the hunting operators.
The successful operator markets the hunts abroad and the funds earned from trophy animals are paid to the District Council who distribute them to the families in the appropriate area. A portion is retained for community development such as grinding mills, schools and bridges. By placing a value on wildlife, the indigenous people benefit and have an incentive to reject poaching.
Acting Bulilima RDC chief executive officer Mr Billiart Mlauzi confirmed that the trophy hunter owes council.
“It is true that council is owed over US$54 000 by Mapassa Big Game Hounds and as council, we have cancelled their contract while councillors have since resolved to take the matter to the courts so that we recover our money which will go a long way in helping us meet some of our projects so as to provide a better service to the villagers,” said Mr Mlauzi.
Council chairperson and Ward 10 Councillor Mr Zoolakes Nyathi, said the hunter would sometimes also fail to meet the full quota allocated to them, claiming customer scarcity due to Covid-19.
“Council was not fully benefiting from the contract because sometimes they would say they couldn’t get clients due to Covid-19. We had no option but to terminate their contract and also resolved to take the legal route,” said Cllr Nyathi.
He said they have already engaged a new hunter as replacement for Mapassa Big Game Hounds.
A comment could not be obtained from the safari operator.
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