THE war between Africa Albida chairman, Dave Glynns and Victoria Falls residents has sparked a huge debate.
Glynns through ,Africa Albida owns the Victoria Falls Safari Lodge,Club and Suites,the Ngoma Safari Lodge and Lokuthula Safari Lodge.
They also own ‘The Boma Place of Eating’ and the Makuwakuwa Restaurant.
He plans to construct a themed park, ‘Santonga Park’, which will include a ‘zoo’.
However, Glynns vehemently denies that it is a zoo although he admits that an invisible fence ‘will be put at the peripheries such that visitors will not be able to see it.
“The wildlife diversity in the area is extraordinary captive animals raise lots of concerns and we still have a lot of work to do to get the formula right and acceptable,” Glynns said.
“We will manipulate the vegetation with only indigenous plant material and to feed the various species and to bring in wide range of bird life and use water barriers where necessary.
“We want it to appear to the visitor that there are no fences at all and the perimeter fence will almost be invisible.”
A zoo (short for zoological park or zoological garden, and also called a menagerie) is a facility in which animals are confined within enclosures, displayed to the public, and in which they may also be bred.
In this case, Zimbabweans are justified to call it a zoo.
And, the water barrier that Glynns intends to put is the closure of an animal corridor that goes to the Zambezi River.
If that is closed the animals will have to create another passage that passes through the residential area increasing the chances of human-wildlife conflict.
Glynns argues that the project will bring in billions of dollars for Zimbabwe and will boost tourism in Victoria Falls.
The project is expected to start in June because Glynns argues that he has been granted permission by ‘government’.
And the project will be complete by 2017.
However, Victoria Falls residents and the general populace are not amused by the project which is expected to raise about 150 direct jobs and 1 500 indirect jobs.
The president of the Employers Association for Tours and Safari Operation (EATSO), Clement Mukwasi said the construction of the zoo does not have anything to do with benefitting Zimbabweans but, selfish interests meant to destroy the Victoria Falls, which is a Seventh Wonder of the World.
“As a nation we have a celebrated heritage site which is in its natural state and the reason why the Niagara Falls in Canada has lost its state is because it has been over developed,” Mukwasi said.
“Amsterdam has the best zoo and the reason why tourists leave their countries to visit Zimbabwe is because of the natural and wilderness state that the country still has and if Zimbabwe creates another zoo that essence will be lost.”
Mukwasi said while the Santonga project created 150 jobs, more jobs would be lost because the natural state would be lost and the number of tourists would decline.
He reiterated that the zoo would affect the free movement of animals something that animal activists would not tolerate and he added that for this reason National Parks are not fenced.
Mukwasi said it was unfortunate that the development was being backed by some ‘senior government officials’ at the expense of the Heritage site.
According to Glynn the ,Santonga project which will be done on an 80 acre piece of land will attempt to tell the Victoria Falls story through history ,culture, and flora and fauna of the area, but in a way that is really ‘first world’.
The Environmental Impact Assessment was done by Allan Sparrow, while the overall strategic plan was done by 22 foreign specialists.
Professor Lee Burger, a globally renowned paleoanthropologist led the historical research and time snapshots selection and content compilation.
A team of four Singaporean based experts to assist with the park design then we had a full set of architects, engineers, landscape designers and wildlife specialists contributing to what could be shown and how it can be done.
Meanwhile,Tourism and hospitality indusry Minister ,Walter Mzembi has unveiled a board a board of directors for Mosi-a-Tunya Development company (MTDC) to spearhed the developemnt of the zoo.