Tourism and Arts Minister Hon. Charles Banda has said he will study and get a good understanding of the 50 percent partnership offer by Mushingashi Game Farm to the Department of National Parks and Wildlife (DNPW).
Speaking during a meeting at his office this morning, the Minister stated that the Government’s position is to step up wildlife conservation through partnerships with other stakeholders who bring on board, capacity, knowledge, skill and technical know-how.
He said this would be the best way to reduce poaching, as community will find themselves partners in the ownership of the wildlife resources.
Hon. Banda said it is for this reason that the government is engaging traditional leaders to get involved in initiatives like game ranching.
And Paul Jones, Chairman of Tudor Investment Corporation, who is owner of Mushinganshi said the partnership will come with great benefits to the entire Kafue Ecosystem.
He said once concluded, the partnership will be the signature of Zambia’s tourism and the restart of game ranching in the country.
Mr. Jones said his vision is to restore and enhance Mushingashi’s biodiversity and cooperate with its neighbours and partners to enhance the development and long-term integrity of the greater Kafue National Park ecosystem.
And former Secretary to the Cabinet Mr. Evans Chibiliti who is partner in the initiative said the partnership will assure government of continuous revenue in that whatever activities involved there will be an equal share.
According Mushingashi prospectus, the project is expected to see the procurement of vehicles, heavy equipment, road, power lines, fencing and other construction projects that are expected to generate Value Added Tax contribution of over USD 1miliion within 2018.
What is there to study …surely when they are issues like culling on Hippos by blood thirsty Boers you don’t study anything…dull chap Charles Banda!!
This one dull minister he is always at the airport seeing off Lazy Lungu!!
Lazy bum son of a polygamist tribal father cum tribal grouping chief strategist of hooligans and bullying wing of a tribal grouping will die of hate. This guy is as evil as that short guy he represents.
Hatribes United needs Hunger (sorry, Anger) management class.
Jay Jay, you can go to hale.
The establishment of Game Ranches or Nature Reserves is a form of ex situ conservation that should incorporate the programme of breeding rare mammals for export to other parts of the World. In an area south-east of Pretoria exists a Nature Reserve where a private firm breeds several lions specifically for export to zoos in several parts of the world. The breeding of such genetic resources as zebras,lions, rhinos, leopards, cheetars etc could be a source of foreign exchange for this country.
Breeding rare mammals for export..listen to yourself and your stupidity!!!!
You expect much from this calibre of ministers in cabinet. The level of engagement and discussions speaks volumes for where we are on the development agenda! The appointment of ministers to the cabinet is a reflection of the mind of the appointing authority.
What Mushingashi should be encouraged to do is take their proposal to LuSE who will study it and offer professional advice. If it’s viable then modalities for floating of shares can be worked out so that individuals and interested institutions can buy. That way there will be proper accountability. Unless they just want to use the govt to camouflage illicit activities. Government isn’t in the business of doing business
But you do understand that Kafue National Park is a Govt property, right? So how do you divorce Govt input or some control over such a venture?
These people are not asking Govt to join the Mushingashi Game Farm business (which I suspect is smaller in scale at the moment.) Rather, they are asking Govt to see if they can also takeover the management of KNP on a 50/50 basis with Govt.
So I don’t see how these guys can start raising money on Stock Exchange (LuSE) without agreed terms with Govt first. And you can understand the reason why the Minister is saying he needs to study the proposal first. Probably even consult other sister ministries in this area to see if it makes good business sense to the Govt. Mind you, KNP is a public property belonging to all of us.
We’re for sure going back to colonialism once again. Surely, surely what kind of country are we to fail to look after our own wild game but rather, sell the tourism potential we have to these mudzungus? You mean, we cannot afford to procure machinery to repair roads, fence off game parks and create even better reserves mwebantu, unless we give these south Africa boers and choncholis?
As long as they don’t allow commercial hunting and sale of wild animals or meat then it might be a viable venture.
What you want to avoid is partitioning and fencing off game parks into small private farms…..it will be beneficial to lease the whole game park to a country like Germany or the scandanavian countries where profits are shared and conservation skills are horned…with local communities benefiting through employment and infrastructure development…a bold approach like this would be a first instead of letting the hungry Chinese or Indians destroy the parks.