Minister: Save Conservancy Invaders Greedy Zimbabweans
Gibbs Dube
27.09.2012
A cabinet minister says top military commanders and senior Zanu PF officials
who recently invaded the wildlife-rich Save Valley Conservancy are greedy
and selfish people who are derailing the rebranding of Zimbabwe as one of
the best tourism destinations in Africa.
Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi said the 37 people who recently occupied the
conservancy have seriously dented the image of the country, still recovering
from a decade of economic decline.
Mzembi said the invaders, who include Major-General Gibson Mashingaidze,
Major-General Engelbert Rugeje, Masvingo Governor Titus Maluleke, Education
Minister Stan Mudenge and several others, are decimating protected wildlife
in the conservancy.
President Robert Mugabe has protested over the invasion of the
money-spinning conservancy which has attracted funding from the World
Wildlife Fund and investors from Europe and the United States.
Mzembi said he would fight tooth and nail to ensure that the invaders are
evicted. ‘If this is a fight that shall bring me into a minority against my
provincial colleagues, so be it,” said Mzembi.
Prominent commercial farmer Themba Dlodlo said invasion of the wildlife
conservancy is embarassing Zimbabwe set to host the World Tourism
Organization’s general assembly.
Other Zanu PF and military elites who seized the conservancy are
Lieutenant-Colonel David Moyo, Retired Colonel Claudius Makova, Assistant
Police Commissioner Connel Dube, Masvingo Provincial Intelligence Officer
Shaderick Chibaya, Brigadier-General Livingstone Chineka, Health Deputy
Minister Douglas Mombeshora and Zanu PF central committee members Shuvai
Mahofa and Enock Porusingazi and legislators Ailess Baloyi, Abraham Sithole,
Samson Mukanduri, Noel Mandebvu and Ronald Mandava.