Vic Falls seeks twinning relationship with Francistown

Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
VICTORIA Falls town is seeking to establish a twinning relationship with Francistown of Botswana in a development that will see the resort town directly benefiting from Botswana’s second largest city.

The twinning arrangement will afford the resort town to market itself as a prime tourism destination as well as investment opportunities in the country.

Botswana celebrates its independence day better known as “Botswana Day” on 30 September in Francistown and that city’s local authority has invited Victoria Falls Mayor Councillor Sifiso Mpofu to be a guest. Last year Victoria Falls municipality also invited the Botswana Embassy to its cultural-tourism event as the resort town weighs its options towards twinning relations.

Victoria Falls’ outgoing Town Clerk Mr Christopher Dube told a full council meeting recently that the town of Francistown had sent an invite for Cllr Mpofu to be their guest.“Botswana celebrates its 50th anniversary in Francistown and the city has invited the Mayor to attend. The Botswana Embassy has always been reckoning and last year we had a good function with them here,” said Mr Dube.The invitation letter from Francistown stated: “Our friendship is beneficial to both cities and we will be happy if your twinning office will be part of these celebrations.”Cllr Mpofu told Chronicle Business later that the engagements would culminate in twinning arrangements.

“This occasion means a lot to us as a town and comes as an opportunity to market ourselves as much as possible as a tourist destination.“This will definitely culminate in such arrangements and we hope our going there will result in that (twinning),” said Cllr Mpofu. He said Victoria Falls town was ready and willing to twin with Francistown and tap from Botswana’s second largest city’s expertise and opportunities the brotherhood would bring. The resort town in 2013 successfully co-hosted the United Nations World Tourism General Assembly (UNWTO) with Livingstone of Zambia in an arrangement that has brought benefits to the two towns through legacy projects as well the Kaza-Uni Visa.

@ncubeleon