Online Reporter
Rutendo Nyeve,Victoria Falls Reporter
THE City of Victoria Falls and South Africa’s Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality are finalising a transformative twinning arrangement aimed at driving economic growth, cultural exchange and shared development, all which is set to redefine cross-border cooperation between the two cities.
The partnership, which aligns with the broader Trans-Limpopo Spatial Development Initiative (TSDI), seeks to unlock new opportunities in tourism, infrastructure, and investment promotion for both regions.
This initiative builds upon an existing successful twinning agreement between Ba-Phalaborwa and the Hwange Local Board, which has already seen the two authorities collaborate at various regional forums.
The momentum towards this new agreement was noticable this week as a six-member delegation from Ba-Phalaborwa, led by Mayor Councillor Merriam Malatje, conducted a return visit to Victoria Falls.
The visit, a reciprocal gesture following a trip by Victoria Falls officials to Limpopo last year, involved a comprehensive tour of key projects managed by the local council, from water infrastructure and youth initiatives to a drug rehabilitation centre.
Speaking to Zimpapers shortly after the tour, an impressed Mayor Malatje highlighted the tangible benefits already emerging from the collaboration.
“This is a return visit. The Victoria Falls visited the municipality of Ba-Phalaborwa last year, and now we are returning the visit
“We are sharing the experience, checking on the best practices they are doing in Victoria Falls. In fact, we are copying what they are doing and indeed we have seen so many things that we are going to change the situation around Ba-
Phalaborwa because we have learnt a lot here,” she said.
Mayor Malatje was particularly struck by the city’s youth opportunities, safety, and cleanliness.
“Remember just like Victoria Falls, we are also a tourist town. What we have heard from you which makes us very proud about the city is of very low crime rates. It is a very safe destination and the cleanliness of this town is it is very good,” she said.
She said there is economic potential, noting that the partnership would be a magnet for investors.
“I can say this initiative will bear fruit in terms of boosting the economy. The investors that are there once they hear us talking about what is happening here in Zimbabwe obviously they want to come,” she said.
Echoing the sentiment of mutual benefit, Victoria Falls Deputy Mayor, Councillor Lungile Nyoni, reflected on the value of the existing exchange with Ba-Phalaborwa’s sister agreement in Hwange.
“I remember at some time last year, we visited Ba-Phalaborwa for a reason in terms of training. The significant thing that we learned or that we were going to benefit out of this training is we learnt a lot in terms of service delivery,” said Clr Nyoni.
He acknowledged the need for contextual adaptation.
“So it will improve our service delivery because we learnt a lot of things that they are doing at that site that we are not doing at this site and also the things that we are doing at this site that they are not doing at that site. We pick a lot of things, but the problem of the things that we pick is that they are based mainly in mining, and we are a tourism town.
So some of the things are not easy to implement, but we are going to implement things that are easy to implement in terms of services,” he said.
This pragmatic approach of identifying transferable strategies while recognising unique economic drivers is at the heart of the partnership’s potential success.
The impending Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is expected to create a formal structure for sharing expertise in revenue collection, tourism management, infrastructure development, and community projects, all under the unifying umbrella of the Trans-Limpopo Spatial Development Initiative.
