Victoria Falls eyes twinning with South African cities

VICTORIA Falls City Council has entered into discussions with Polokwane and Phalaborwa cities in Limpopo province in South Africa for possible twinning agreements.

The city council has over the years been scouting for twinning arrangements with cities abroad including Belarusian local authorities riding on the visit to the city by the European country’s President, Alexander Lukashenko last year.

Being Zimbabwe’s prime tourism destination, Victoria Falls is interested in twining arrangements with Phalaborwa, a tourism and mining city in northern South Africa.

Victoria Falls City Council’s economic development manager, Mr Ngqabutho Moyo represented the city in a series of meetings and indications are that some of the agreements would be signed before the end of the year.

In an interview during the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair last week, Victoria Falls’ chamber secretary, Ms Kholwani Mangena confirmed the meetings.

“Yes, we met at the ZITF and we are hoping to sign a MoU before the end of September. The City of Polokwane also expressed interest in entering into a twinning arrangement with us and we will explore areas of commonality and mutual benefit,” she said.

Matabeleland region and Limpopo Province have existing Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) under the auspices of the Trans Limpopo Spatial Development Initiative that need to be operationalised to unlock mutual economic interests and develop their economies.

Limpopo has five municipal districts, which include Capricorn, Mopani, Sekhukhune, Vhembe and Waterberg with 22 local municipalities. Polokwane, which falls under Capricorn District is the provincial capital.

Matabeleland region boasts of one of the World’s Seven Natural Wonders and the Big Five in Victoria Falls and Hwange, making the district Zimbabwe’s tourism capital.

The manufacturing industry and culture in Bulawayo, livestock in both Matabeleland South and North and mining in both provinces widen the opportunities.

The Trans Limpopo Spatial Development Initiative was created through an MoU in 2001.

The only fruit of the MoU to date has been a twinning arrangement between Bulawayo and Polokwane and the two cities have had cultural exchange programmes.

A delegation from Limpopo province visited Victoria Falls a year ago to resuscitate the agreement and some twinning agreements were signed, marking the revitalisation of the marriage between the two regions.

Phalaborwa signed with Hwange Local Board and Hwange Rural District Council while Beitbridge Municipality signed with its neighbour Musina.

Gwanda was supposed to sign with Makhado, with Victoria Falls City pursuing Phalaborwa.

The initiative is a development corridor that seeks to unlock value through co-ordination stretching from Polokwane to Victoria Falls and optimise economic opportunities.

Some of the benefits to accrue are the development of one-stop border posts, rehabilitation of the Victoria Falls-Bulawayo-Beitbridge Road, implementation of the Special Economic Zones, and the twinning arrangements for local authorities and development agencies.

This will create an economic corridor and promote trade and economic development in the Trans- Limpopo corridor, extending into Mozambique through Gonarezhou in the Lowveld.

Plans are underway for Victoria Falls and Phalaborwa local authorities to have exchange visits before September, to scout for opportunities and possibly sign an MoU of intent to twin.

Phalaborwa is mainly interested in Victoria Falls because of the meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions and already the province has a direct air flight between Victoria Falls and Kruger National Park, making connectivity easy and well-placed to develop a tourism corridor and open other investment opportunities.

“The idea is to develop a joint calendar and our framework is to twin with Phalaborwa, which we hope by December will be there together with the MoU. Of mutual benefit, we want the local authorities to share benefits by growing corridors for business.

“We want to expand into Mozambique, exploiting the opportunities in the relationship in the triangular link,” said Mr Moyo.

A survey done by ZimTrade found that there is a great market opportunity for Zimbabwean products and the national trade development and promotion agency backed the trade initiative between Zimbabwe and Limpopo as the two countries have an advantage in terms of proximity. — @ncubeleon.