adminLeonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
VICTORIA Falls Municipality has said the fencing off of part of Chamabondo Forest is illegal because no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was carried out. The municipality also claims that the lease given to the proprietor of the project, Charles Tshabangu, was cancelled a few years ago when the piece of land was included in the local authority’s master plan.
The contested 90 hectares is part of 1,200 hectares earmarked for the local authority’s master plan, where a tourism recreational theme park will be built. Victoria Falls Town Clerk, Christopher Dube, told a full council meeting recently that it was illegal to fence the area.
“We’ve a correspondence from Victoria Falls Integrated Tourism Park which sought to establish our position on the fence. I went to check and those people have a lease which was however cancelled when the land was allocated to the municipality. I asked the government to look into the issue since the land is within our proposed master plan and they said the development is illegal and as a council we also consider it illegal,” said Dube while addressing councillors.
Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Permanent Secretary, Engineer George Mlilo, could not be drawn into commenting on the issue as he referred questions back to the local authority.
Tshabangu said the project would go ahead and he was engaging the Ministry over the developments.
“I got a lease for Masue in 1991 and renewed it in 1999 and it expires in 2025. It wasn’t cancelled as I’m paying royalties to the Ministry and the council,” he said.
“The condition was to put a lodge which I did and I want to introduce rhinos as a point of attraction for the lodge, that’s why I erected a fence for the safety and security of the rhinos from poachers.”
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