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Cde Cain Mathema

Prosper Ndlovu Deputy News Editor
THE United States government has reportedly blocked its citizens from conducting hunting safaris in conservancies in Matabeleland North in what provincial Minister of State Cde Cain Mathema described as a deliberate ploy to frustrate the tourism sector.Cde Mathema, who met safari operators and interested groups at Hwange Safari Lodge yesterday, said delegates expressed concern over hostile perceptions about the country’s safari industry in the international media, viewed as part of the sanctions agenda.

“I met Safari operators, the people in the Hwange conservancy area and their stakeholders. During the meeting it emerged that the US has stopped its citizens from doing hunting safaris here,” the Minister told Chronicle in a telephone interview after the meeting.

“There were concerns that some people in the province are working as agents in telling the world lies about Zimbabwe, saying we are killing our elephants wily-nilly. They are denigrating Zimbabwe on the Internet and through social media.”

Cde Mathema said the US, which has imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, was feasting on such misguided reports and taking advantage of them to suffocate the country’s economy through sanctions.

He said: “We know the US imposed sanctions on us. They are taking advantage of the recent cyanide poisoning of elephants at Hwange National Park to denigrate us.

“We know some people behind this smear campaign who say there are no elephants here. That must stop. We cannot be trained by them on how to look after our wildlife. They destroyed theirs.”

The Minister said the meeting revealed the embargo has seen most safari zones being reduced to photographic safari only.

“We are under siege. They want us to be seen as failures because they don’t want us to benefit from our resources and some Western agents in our midst influence that. One of them is an Australian woman,” said Cde Mathema.

He urged players in the tourism sector to partner government in coming up with marketing strategies of the country’s resorts.

Cde Mathema said Zimbabweans should use the social media to counter the hostile perceptions projected about the country on the Internet. “I emphasised the need to stop being negative and criticising each other. We need to defend Zimbabwe and our embassies should say who we are and what we have.

“As tourism players in Mat North, we agreed to work together as a sector of the economy,” he said.

Cde Mathema said safari operators expressed concern over lack of financing for their projects and urged the banking sector to partner with the indigenous players.

The Provincial Minister said developing a vibrant tourism industry was a major component of the new economic blueprint, Zim-Asset.

He also said traditional leaders expressed concern over wild animals that were terrorising villagers in the safari areas as they were destroying crops and killing their livestock.

Cde Mathema said the tourism sector accounts for about 10 percent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product and urged the players in the industry to fight for the success of their ventures to influence economic turnaround.

Comment could not be obtained from the US embassy.