Dear All

Checkout at Shoprite. Interestingly, I heard over their sound system that Shoprite uses 80% Zambian products in its shops here. I think they must be counting every one of Muchenje’s lettuce leaves.

GRI - Zambia

Supported by GRI, the Department of National Parks & Wildlife’s Marine Anti-Poaching Unit is mandated to provide response capabilities to illegal activities on Lake Itezhi-Tezhi. Situated in the southern part of the Kafue National Park, the lake is a known ingress and egress route for poachers and traffickers.

A recent joint operation between Marine APU and the KAZA division of the Special Anti Poaching Unit resulted in the apprehension of 7 suspects, 8 boats and 4 gill nets.

ZAMBIA

BioCarbon Partners An exciting new development has taken place in our new addition to the LCFP! During March 2020, we included 15,046 hectares of the Mpanashya Corridor to the LCFP. For the first time in decades, elephant have been sighted crossing the Great East Road, showing a possible link between community-based forest protection and improved wildlife habitat and in turn, increased wildlife. We would like to extend a very big thank you to Department of National Parks and Wildlife and Wildlife and Conservation Lower Zambezi - CLZ for deploying teams to protect the four bulls sighted as well as to Mpanshya CRB for their contributions in safeguarding the elephant.

G: There is a link between Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa National Parks. The link is a corridor of Game Management Areas. This is an important corridor for the movement of wildlife and needs all the protection it can get.

Zambia Primate Project is feeling happy.

Over the weekend ZPP completed Phase 1 of the construction of our new Primate Pre-Release Facility in our release area in Kafue National Park. The new road into our site is now complete, along with the firebreaks. Thank you to our partner DNPW for the use of their grader and operatives to carry out this work - it was a great team effort. Once complete, the primates we rescue from illegal captivity will be taken straight to this facility for rehabilitation. This facility will be strictly off limits to visitors as we will be weaning the rescued primates off human company and preparing them for their release back to the wild. This will be crucial for their successful transition to a wild life.

From a concerned citizenZambian Watchdog

I think we should be very careful with the usage of these locally made face masks because of what I saw today. I was in a bus where a passenger called a facemask seller. After asking for the price, he took one and put it on. He immediately told the seller that he wanted to make another choice. He finally paid for one after putting on about 5 different types. I noticed it and told the man the implication of what he had just done and he became so guilty. Even other passengers became fearful because what I said touched them. Now, what if that man had the virus, …

A Tribute to Ruger - November 2012 - 20th April 2020Conservation South Luangwa

There is nothing quite like the companionship, loyalty and love from a dog. It’s taken a few days for me to be able to collect my thoughts, and stop the tears long enough to express just what kind of a dog Ruger was and what a legend he will always be.

He came to us in 2014 from Working Dogs for Conservation in America, to start Zambia’s first wildlife K9 program. He tested the limits of Working Dogs for Conservation commitment to rescuing dogs and keeping talented but unwanted dogs alive and working-- everything from refusing to go to the vet, to losing his sight, being temperamental, to notoriously biting a couple of key donors. But they persevered and did not give up on him. WD4C developed what would become one of CSL’s most talented, loving working dogs who rewarded us with a remarkable career arresting wildlife perpetrators, confiscating firearms, ivory, narcotics, pangolins and other illegal wildlife products.

The biggest contribution Ruger made to our program and our team is not his amazing ability to work or the number of poachers arrested. It is the uncompromising loyalty and trust that he taught his handlers and his kennel keepers which in turn led to a deep and honest love the CSL K9 team have for all of their dogs, something they are now well known for.

My greatest concern with starting our program 6 years ago was developing an unbreakable bond between handlers and dogs. I was so off the mark with this. Over the six years Ruger spent with CSL, he taught each one of us to trust him, thus allowing him to trust us, love him as a friend, enjoy every moment with him whether it is working, swimming, taking plane rides, barking at baboons or hanging out together on the couch at the kennels. He proved me wrong in my thinking that unless you are born a dog person you can’t become one.

During the past two years, Ruger developed intermittent medical issues. He dodged many bullets in his life, having been rescued from a Blackfoot reservation in the USA where he was homeless and unloved, avoided being euthanized, and survived more life threatening health issues than most other dogs with at least 5 trips to the ER. We would joke about it saying he’s just keen for a plane ride to Lusaka and the chance to get a hotel room with his kennel keeper for a few days, then he’d bounce back to life again. Despite our best efforts he died on Monday evening during an emergency surgery for stomach complications.As a small team we deeply mourn the loss of one of our first two dogs. Every person on the K9 team has come to me to talk about how they feel, asking why it hurts so much and why his death is so hard. I reply saying it is because we have lost our friend, colleague and a member of our family.Thank you to WD4C for trusting we could handle a dog like Ruger, the amazing CSL K9 team and everyone else who was part of his life and helped develop his ridiculous personality, we so wish he could have lived longer but we can promise he lived a happy, full and meaningful life and we should all take a page out of Ruger’s book.

ZAMBIA TRADITIONAL HISTORYThe Kunda

The Kunda people are an offshoot of the Bisa tribe; the Bisa from the Luba Empire of the Congo Basin.

It is thought that the Kunda split from the Bisa, while the Bisa were settled along the Luapula River. This breakaway group moved eastward towards the Luangwa River in the 1840s. At this time the major slave trading had not started. We do know, though, that some Bisa had been involved in the slave and elephant tusk trade between the Kazembe Lunda and the Portuguese for some time.

The leader of the Kunda, who chose to secede from his father was known as Mambwe. It is not known how they gained the name Kunda, but it is thought possible that it was a place name. The old folk also mention that they were known as the Awetwe. The royal clan has the totem, Chulu, meaning Ant Hill, although some chose the name Mbawo, meaning ‘minute insect’.

The legend of their migration from Bisaland concerns Bisa Chief Chawala Makumba. Chief Chawala Makumba had ordered that all male children be put to death at birth so that there was no threat to his authority as chief. One woman, Kawa, had given birth to three daughters and then produced a son. This son was killed. Again, she became pregnant, producing another son who was also killed. Towards the end of her next pregnancy she went into hiding in the forest and, after producing a son, took him to a neighbouring village where relatives of her husband lived. There, the son was named Mambwe and grew to become a man. After hearing his life story, Mambwe decides to leave the realm of Chawala Makumba, gathers his people and moves east. (This sounds to me like a crib of a biblical story).

On finding out that Mambwe had taken many of his people away, the Bisa Chief, Chawala Makumba, rallied his forces and followed. A clash between Mambwe and Chawala Makumba occurs near the Muchinga Escarpment with Mambwe being victorious, forcing Chawala Makumba to flee. Mambwe continues his journey over the Muchinga Escarpment and down into the Luangwa Valley. They called the Luangwa Valley Marambo.

Silva Porto on his expedition in the 1852 mentions the Kunda: Where the Luangwa is crossed begins the territory of the Cunda. David Livingstone does not mention them when he crossed the Luangwa River in 1860s but he did cross much further north.

On reaching the Luangwa River some of the Kunda people, under a man called Malama, crossed to the eastern side. Here they mixed with the Nsenga people already there. They settled on the Lusangazi River, their village known as Chikunto. The name Chikunto comes from the fact that the people met a pride of man-eating lions there; Chikunto meaning ‘to destroy’. The first Chief Sandwe was the son of Malama, the Kunda chief, and an Nsenga woman. We now know the Game Management Area as Sandwe. The area where Malama settled is now within the Lupande Game Management Area.

To explain the map, the villages of Nsefu and Jumbe are the present sites but they are probably the same as the original sites. The one labelled ‘Salt’ is the area that Mambwe must have visited to find salt during his time. Although most of us now know salt to come in plastic bags at the supermarket, during the early days salt was often difficult to find and became a valuable trading commodity, essential as it was and is, for the human diet.

South Luangwa National Park is between the Luangwa River and Muchinga Escarpment. The Nsefu Area is north of the Kaulazi River on the west of the Luangwa River and includes ‘Salt’ which has become a great attraction for wildlife and visitors.

Malama’s Village became the village of Chief Msoro of the Kunda people.

It was not long after Malama and his Kunda people had settled in the region that the Ngoni arrived on their migration from southern Africa northwards. The Ngoni had caused mayhem in their travels through present-day Botswana and Zimbabwe. Many people were captured or killed. Those captured became wives, if women, and soldiers, if male children. Like the Matabele and the Zulu, boys were trained in regiments consisting of similar-aged males and were trained from the age of about 10-12 in military skills. These regiments were known as impi and would be sent out by the chief to raid.

The Ngoni had crossed the Zambezi River in 1835 near Zumbo. After staying among the Nsenga along the Zambezi River for four years they continued their journey northwards. They must have journeyed to the east of Chindeni Hills and missed the opportunity of raiding the Kunda settled along the Lusangazi River. However, the Nsenga and other tribes along the Ngoni route were either forced to flee or join the Ngoni horde.

Meanwhile, getting back to the leader of the original expedition, Mambwe leaves his fellow Kunda, under Malama, to their lives on the east of the Luangwa River. Mambwe decides to travel further north with the remaining Kunda people and follows the Luangwa River northwards, through present-day South Luangwa National Park. They continue northwards until they find a crossing point, eventually settling on the eastern bank of the Luangwa between the Mwangazi and the Kauluzi Rivers. We are told that Mambwe found the area uninhabited. The Kauluzi River is the southern border of the Nsefu area of South Luangwa National Park, the Mwangazi in Lupande Game Management Area.

Lane Poole: Mambwe next explored the Mwangazi as far as the site of the present village of Sefu, where he stayed for a short time and, in commemoration of his visit, he planted a grove of Mizumba trees which today present an imposing sight and afford grateful shade. The Mizumba trees, I think they may be Kirkia.

Mambwe’s next move took him north over the Kauluzi River because he had heard of salt deposits and founded a new village on a river called Ulanda, near to the salt supply. It was here that Mambwe lost his life. He had a disagreement with a Bisa Chieftainess, Nawalya (now Chief Nabwalya). It is said that a woman had been raped by one of Mambwe’s men.

Lane Poole: Her outraged flight to her husband and the disclosure of her rape was enough, in those days of specious argument …. A vengeful horde of Wisa, under the leadership of Chambwe Cholola himself, set out and surprised Mambwe before his stockaded village. After a brief but bloody resistance, Mambwe and his brother Mwase were killed. Their bodies lie buried in a grave midway between the village and the water.

Before Mambwe’s death, he had sent out two contingents of his people to find new land. His brother, Mchacha founded a new colony of Kunda people on the Lutembwe-Msandili confluence which became Kunda under Chief Jumbe. Another expedition, under the command of his nephew, Chiziwa, occupied the valleys of the Msandili and Lupande Rivers. I am assuming that this became Nsefu.

After his death, Mambwe was succeeded by his brother who was killed in a battle with the Bisa and then by a nephew, Kavimba, who came to power during the 1880s.

From Lane Poole’s account, we are told that Mambwe’s village was in a stockade. Most of the villages were stockaded at this time because of raids from the Bemba and Ngoni. The Bemba were working hand in hand with the Swahili slave traders. Meanwhile the Ngoni had travelled north to the east of Lake Tanganyika, raiding as they went. When their chief, Zwangendaba had died, there was a dispute about who should become the next chief and it ended with the Ngoni horde splitting into several groups. One group under Mpezeni came back south and settled for a time north of Kundaland. From there they continued their raiding even as far as Bangweulu. Their major foe was the Bemba who were now armed by the Swahili traders and many skirmishes and battles occurred between the two powers.

By the 1880s the slave and elephant tusk trade was well underway. The Kunda, therefore, had to contend with not only Ngoni raids for cattle and people but also the Bemba raids for elephants and slaves.

The effect on the Kunda was to force many of them to flee and others to join the Ngoni. It was during this turbulent time that Kunda authority fluctuated as Kunda men fought amongst themselves. Mulu, the rightful heir had been murdered by a usurper, Chuaula, who proved to be very forceful with his people, mutilating many. Mulu’s rightful heir was Nsefu, who was in exile in present-day Malawi.

When Alfred Sharpe trekked along the Luangwa Valley in 1890 he found it uninhabited. Alfred Sharpe was working for Cecil Rhodes looking for chiefs with whom to make treaties for the British. Although I cannot find references about the Chikunda who were settled among the Nsenga, I feel sure that they must have come north from the Zambezi River and have raided the Luangwa Valley for elephants and people – the elephant tusks for trade and the people as porters and then sold as slaves. So, altogether, the Luangwa Valley could not have been a very welcoming place for pastoralists like the Kunda.

The uninhabited status of the Luangwa Valley must have continued until the British, under the British South Africa Company, brought peace in 1899. It was then that Nsefu returned and took up his position as Chief of the northern Kunda.

From that time, the people must have settled back into their old villages but, in the 1930s, when South Luangwa was declared a Game Reserve, the people were moved out of the area. Originally the Nsefu Area was not part of the Game Reserve, it was brought in after a collaboration between Norman Carr and Chief Nsefu. This is where Norman Carr brought his two hand-reared lions – Big Boy and Little Boy.

Camp Hwange

As we continued guide training in camp, with Peter as our “guide”, we met up with Rocky in somewhat of a prickly situation:

We were watching some buffalo crossing the road and just as they started to move off, we spotted a young male lion head pop up out of the grass about 100m away. We immediately identified him as Rocky, who has half an ear one side and is about two and a half years old now. As he came across, we noticed that he has two porcupine quills sticking out of his face!

He is looking skinny but in typical Rocky fashion, he is hunting the buffalo solo with one quill literally up his nose and one through his front lip. He pondered us for a while and then carried on with his mission. The quills did not seem to bother him and we could not work out how he was planning to bite anything... especially a buffalo by hey its Rocky!!!

Unfortunately, he disappeared into thick bush and we could not follow him but we have notified Parks and they have said if we see him again we can try to get in a vet to remove them.

From time to time we come across predators with porcupine quills stuck in them and often enough they seem to be able to get them out on their own but we’ll keep you posted on our friend Rocky!

ZIMBABWE

US $3bn coal power plant to be constructed in ZimbabweConstruction Review

A US $3bn coal power plant is set to be constructed in Northern Zimbabwe by Rio Energy Limited. The 2,800MW power plant will be constructed in four phases of about 700MW each. Rio Energy will partner with China Gezhouba Group Corp in funding and developing the power plant. …

KAZUNGULA BRIDGE PROJECT - REQUEST FOR EXPRESSION OF INTEREST

1. The Governments of the Republic of Botswana and Zambia through the Kazungula Bridge Project Office (KBPO) hereby invites Individual Consultants to indicate their Interest in the following assignments: Consultancy Services for the Design and Development of Training Materials/Modules in Trade Facilitation & Border Management and Delivery of the Training of Trainers Programme.

2. The Services to be provided under the assignment include:

• To Develop a Course Content of Training:Trade Facilitation and Border Management Subject. The training module shall combine comprehensive content/details on the theoretical & practical aspects of Trade Facilitation and Border Management and the reference methodology to be adopted by facilitators to impart training. Training subjects shall include but not limited to Training on the 4 Pillars of Trade Facilitation; OSBP Concept; Coordinated Border Management (CBM); Doing Business Reports of Botswana and Zambia; Trade Facilitation Guidelines of WTO, UNCTAD, UNECE, WCO; INCOTERMS and Trade Documents; HS Code; International Conventions on Transport of Goods; and Documentary Credit.

• To Develop a training program and training material. Conduct meetings with BURS, ZRA, Departments of Immigration, technical/project consultant & other representatives for the purpose of tailoring the training program. ……

BotswanaConnect

Chobe River

BOTSWANA

Wildlife Vets Namibia

On Saturday, at the request of Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism Namibia and N/a’an ku sê, we translocated the Swakopmund elephant. If you want to read more about the history of this elephant, check statement of the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) in the comments. On Friday we built our base camp and made sure all the equipment and logistics were ready. Saturday was the big day! The elephant was darted from the MEFT helicopter and once he was immobilized, the crane truck from Cowboy’s Trading & Rental Solutions came in. Special straps were placed around his feet, he was picked up, and positioned on the crane truck. From there we drove to our elephant crates. Easier said than done in sandy terrain…! Luckily Swakopmund Hire Sales & Services cc was there with some heavy machinery to help us conquer the sand! He was constantly monitored, injected with a vitamin booster and tranquilizer, and was vaccinated against anthrax and clostridium.

Around lunchtime the elephant was loaded and awake, and we started the 420 km long journey to its final destination. With the help of the Nampol Traffic Division the trip, and going through the road blocks, went smooth and quick. Everybody was tested for signs of Covid-19 before the capture so we did not have any delays while transporting the elephant. Our priority was to offload the elephant as soon as possible. During the trip we regularly stopped to check is he was still alright. He did well, and was calm during the whole trip.

Around 19:00 we arrived at the N/a’an ku sê reserve. The elephant was first released in a special pre-release elephant boma, so he could rest and be monitored closely. He walked out very quietly, and quickly disappeared into the bush. He was kept in this boma for 36 hours, and was then released into the 7500-ha reserve itself. The reserve has elephant-proof fencing, and after the good rains the vegetation is lush and green so there is plenty of food around. The elephant and doing well so far, and remains State property.

We would like to thank all those involved in this operation! From the Ministry, N/a’an ku sê, those who helped with all the logistics or helping out with their machinery, to the health officials and police officers, it was big team effort and we are happy that it all went well.

NAMIBIA

BBC Travel is in Namibia.

Did you know the Namib Desert is considered the oldest in the world? The Namib, or “vast place” extends through Southern Africa and is believed to have existed for some 43 million years. This Martian-like landscape of towering sand dunes, rugged mountains and gravel plains stretches some 81,000 sq km across three countries.

Iona NP in Angola joins African ParksAfrica Geographic

The Angola Government and African Parks have signed a management agreement for the vast 15,200 km² (1,5 million hectares) Iona National Park, initiating their first partnership to ensure the long-term protection of one of the country’s largest protected areas. Iona is an iconic southern Angolan desert landscape, extending from its Atlantic coastline over dunes, plains and mountains.

“We are excited for what the future holds for Iona National Park, by partnering with African Parks to enhance park management and restore this landscape for the benefit of wildlife and people,” said Aristófanes Romão da Cunha Pontes, Director General of the National Institute of Biodiversity and Conservation Areas (INBAC). “Our vision is to showcase the natural wonders that Angola has to offer and for people to come from all over and experience this globally significant region of the planet”.

Situated in the Namib desert in the south-west corner of Angola, its stark 160-km shoreline abutting the Atlantic Ocean, Iona is one of Africa’s most sublime wilderness areas with rich terrestrial and offshore ecosystems. The sand and gravel plains at its centre are bordered by mountains reaching heights of 2,000 metres in the east and dunes that run the length of its coastline in the west. Fed by two bordering rivers, the Cunene and Curoca, the park contains extensive woodlands and is inhabited by cheetah and leopard, herds of Oryx, springbok and Hartmann’s zebra, ostrich, endemic reptiles and is the principal habitat to one of the world’s most ancient plants, Welwitschia mirabilis. …

ANGOLA

DRCGame Rangers Association of Africa

Today we mourn our 12 ranger colleagues and their driver who were killed in Virunga National Park yesterday in a horrific roadside ambush near park headquarters that left 4 civilians dead. We wish the four severely wounded rangers and two wounded civilians in this tragic and senseless onslaught a full recovery.

Our thoughts and prayers are with their families, friends and ranger col-leagues at this devastating time. We will remember our fallen comrades and continue their work!

“This is the single worst loss of life suffered by Africa’s ranger corps that we have on record. Although we cannot begin to imagine the pain their families are going through having lost their loved ones and breadwinners, we ask the international community to support them by donating towards the Virunga Fallen Rangers Fund.” Andrew Campbell - Chief Executive Of-ficer, Game Rangers Association of Africa.

Democratic Republic of Congo and the areas surrounding Virunga are rife with conflict and political instability. Rangers work to bring stability to pro-tected areas and their work is a beacon of light amongst a sea of poverty, hopelessness and tragedy. We urge the international community to work towards not only supporting these rangers but assisting in bringing stability and peace to these war torn areas for the sake of surrounding communi-ties, our ranger colleagues and the iconic landscapes and wildlife they protect.

Country Total con-

firmed cases

Total con-

firmed new

cases

Total deaths

Total new

deaths

Zambia 61 4 3 1Zimbabwe 25 0 3 0Botswana 20 5 1 0Namibia 16 0 0 0Mozambique 35 4 0 0Malawi 17 0 2 0Angola 19 0 2 0DRC 332 5 25 0South Africa 3158 124 54 2

OTHER STUFF

COVID-19 Stats as at 20 April

Country Total con-firmed cases

Total con-firmed new cases

Total deaths

Total new deaths

Zambia 124 5 3 0Zimbabwe 34 0 4 0Botswana 23 0 1 0Namibia 16 0 0 0Mozambique 80 1 0 0Malawi 39 1 3 0Angola 35 0 2 0Tanzania 480 0 18 0DRC 682 8 34 1South Africa 6783 447 131 8

COVID-19 Stats as at 4 May

Biggest ever vulture mortality event in the world unfolds in Guinea-Bissau: estimates of over 2000 Hooded Vultures poisoned to death due to belief-based useVulture Conservation Foundation

Guinea-Bissau became a vulture graveyard over the past couple of months, with an unprecedented situation killing a minimum of 1,600 Hooded Vultures (Necrosyrtes monachus), and probably many more, and causing a devastating blow to the conservation of a species that is threatened with extinction in Africa. With the political turmoil in the country and the global COVID-19 pandemic, it has been even more difficult and slow to respond accordingly to the circumstances, but local and national authorities and the Vulture Conservation Foundation (VCF), IUCN’s Vulture Specialist Group (VSG) and BirdLife International (BLI) are still working on the case. The Authorities in Guinea-Bissau have been very responsive, and organised two field missions in late March and in April, but further action is necessary to prevent future fatalities.

It all started with the detection of 200 vulture deaths in early February, but the situation gradually escalated, currently reaching 1,603 confirmed fatalities that were mostly concentrated in the Eastern sectors of the country (in Bambadinca, Bafatá and Gabú towns). However, it is impossible to determine the exact numbers, as only a limited area has been thoroughly searched, and many carcasses have probably been missed or rapidly disposed of by the local population once discovered. Therefore, the VCF and colleagues fear that it is likely that deaths amount to over 2000 Critically Endangered Hooded Vultures, as mortality has apparently started in December 2019, and continued throughout March.

Coexistence Co-Op (Kenya) Yesterday we had a very sad poisoning event in western Laikipia, which killed 11 Tawny Eagles, 1 Hooded Vulture, 7 Ruppell’s Vultures (both vultures are critically endangered) and 1 black-backed jackal. Three camels were killed by lions on Sunday, which triggered this retaliatory attack. Our team is still on the ground assessing the situ-ation to determine if there is further mortality. We are also in touch with the community. Unfortunately the ongoing CV-19 crisis severely limited our capacity to urgently respond to the community. We know the upcoming months will continue to be difficult especially with the ongoing heavy rains, which often correlates to more lion attacks on livestock. We thank the team at Ol Maisor Ranch for their help in responding to this incident.

Conservation Crisis

Conservation Crisis is a new board game app that challenges players to save an endangered species. Players are given a limited budget each round and have to decide how to spend it: supporting local communities around their reserve to improve conservation; hiring vets to ward off disease; training rangers to protect wildlife from the poachers roaming the area; or building tourist lodges to generate more revenue for their reserve. Everything in the game is based on real-world conservation, designed and tested by experts, offering players a unique insight into the challenges faced by those working on the frontline to save wildlife. Every purchase includes a donation to three conservation charities to support real-life conservation work around the world.

The app is available from the Apple Appstore (https://apps.apple.com/gb/app/conservation-crisis/id1361610790) and Google Play (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tunzagames.conservationcrisis3).

To add an extra layer of reality to the game, there is also a checkpoint where players have to choose to wait or to pay a ‘bribe’ to the poachers to get straight through. Waiting slows players down, just like in real life, but those who pay the bribe must take a ‘bribe card’, which leads to problems later in the game; the aim is to create a fun way to show how and why corruption is such a serious issue.

Impact of the Pandemic for us in AfricaA personal perspective

Most tour operators in our region are trying to keep smiling in the hopes that African tourism will come back next year. But COVID-19 has changed so much in everyone’s lives.

Around the world, many people have lost their jobs and businesses have failed. There will be people who had saved up for their African holiday but have been forced to spend that money on essentials. Will their holiday be cancelled or postponed? We know that an African holiday is expensive and many people save for several years in order to visit us. Is that money still available? We also have to realise that people’s mindset has changed. People will not be so keen to travel. In the coming years, in order to prop up their own tourist industries, travellers will opt for local travel instead of overseas. We can be sure that most governments around the world will launch an aggressive marketing campaign to support their own tourist industries which have also been hard hit.

Let’s look at the airlines. Most planes around the world are parked and pilots and cabin crews have lost their jobs. South African Airways has been on the verge of collapse for many years through mis-management and been propped up by the government. It is likely that this will be the final straw. For years most of our travellers have gone to Johannesburg and taken a connecting flight to us with South African Airways. If ‘social distancing’ rules continue for some time, it will mean that once planes start to fly again, they cannot pack people into planes as they used to. Flights will become much more expensive.

For all of us around the Victoria Falls we need to make a plan together. It has always irked me that Johannesburg has been the ‘centre’ for tourism in our region. The planes fly over the Victoria Falls and go for another 900 km to Johannesburg and then another plane comes back again. Let’s not talk about the carbon footprint of this ridiculous waste of time and energy – it is shocking. In the old days Harare used to be the regional hub which made much more sense but those days have long gone and unlikely to return.

We need a tourism hub here right by the Victoria Falls. I would like to think that Livingstone could take on the job, but know that is impossible. We do not have the will or business sense to make it work. Victoria Falls Airport in Zim can’t do it either. For me, it has to be Kasane. I know the Botswana government have had this in mind for some time. The country is politically stable and has a good head for business. Most importantly, the Botswana government allows private businesses to take charge of developments. In Zambia and Zimbabwe, governments interfere too much and we know that few politicians understand business. Sorry, Namibia, but your airport in Katima Mulilo could never do, it is too remote.

During the coming year businesses need to come together to see how we can bring the tourists back. Assuming that South African Airways does go down, we need another airline to take its place and we need another tourism hub. We need to add to that a regional marketing campaign to persuade travellers to visit us. Remember my book, Beyond the Victoria Falls? That covers all the parks around the Victoria Falls to visit – all within driving distance or a short flight.

Zambia: Kafue, Lower Zambezi and South Luangwa are all a short flight away from Livingstone.Zimbabwe: Hwange, Mana Pools are both well-served by charter flights. Chizarira too is coming back.Botswana: Chobe, Moremi, Makgadikgadi Pans … we really don’t need to list them they are so well known. Namibia: Bwabwata, Nkasa Rupara (Mamili) and Mudumu are all in the Caprivi and making a come-back. But it is also only a short flight to Etosha.

We have so much to offer. We need to look at border crossings to make them easy and cheap – let’s get rid of all those visas. We need the cost of landing and parking for planes at airports to be reduced. It could take one year, two years or even longer, but if all four countries work together, we can make it sooner rather than later.

Maybe Peace Parks can play a role. There is no point them trying to help conserve our parks and wildlife corridors with no tourists. It is the tourists who bring in the money and provides the jobs. It is also the tourist presence which helps protect the parks.

EXCHANGE RATESUS$1 K17.95

P12.12Nam$18.45Zim$50.30

WEATHERMin Temp Max Temp

13°C (55) 28°C (82)

Have a safe two weeks

Gill

SOME SMILES

Lol, don’t worry, it’s a Ford, can’t catch anything