ULTIMATE
AFRICA SAFARIS
Ultimate Africa travel and wildlife news archive December 1997 Floods Cut off Roads to Tanzanian Wildlife Parks, December 28 1997 Rain damage to the Makuyuni and Manyara roads leading to Tanzania's northern wildlife parks has brought two wheel drive traffic to a halt and could cost the Tanzanian tourism industry 34 million US Dollars. The "East African" newspaper quoted Executive Secretary of the Tanzania Association of Tour Operators, Mustapha Akunaay, as saying that most tourist vehicles are two-wheel driving and immobilized by the rough roads. "We are really worried that if the rains continue and the government fails to repair the road, no tourists will go to the parks again for a long time," Akunaay said. (NOTE: Ultimate Africa uses 4 wheel drive vehicles in Tanzania) The Tanzanian Meteorological Department has said the above-average seasonal rains affected by the El Nino weather phenomenon could continue until next April. Most of visitors came to Tanzania to view animals in the wilderness. The famed parks of Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti attract most of the tourists. Any stoppage will cause unemployment for hundreds of drivers and travel guides as well as a loss of business to curio sellers at Mto wa Mbu and at Lake Manyara junction to Ngorongoro, most of them Massai tribesmen. Tanzania expects to receive more 359,000 tourists by the end of 1997, of whom 90 percent will pass through the Makuyuni gravel link road. Shark Kills Diver off South African Coast, December 28 1997 South African police are searching for the remains of a diver believed to have been killed by a great white shark while spearfishing near Cape Town on Sunday. Witnesses had told police they saw a shark's dorsal fin measuring about 50 cm (20 inches) cut the surface of the sea in the area where the missing man, James Hill, 39, had been diving. Hill had been spearfishing off Pringle Bay, a resort on False Bay near Cape Town. Great white sharks often frequent the area. Local newspapers quoted shark experts as saying the water in the area was unusually warm, which would attract great whites and encourage their appetites. They said sharks appeared to mistake divers wearing wet suits for seals, a regular part of their diet. South African Tourism Developing Fast, December 28 1997 Tourism in South Africa has been developing in leaps and bounds since the abolition of apartheid in 1994. According to South African Tourism Minister, Pallo Jordan, the number of overseas visitors to the country increased by 1.26 million in 1995 compared with 1994, recording a 34.8 percent increase. In 1996, almost five million tourists visited South Africa and the projected figure for the year 2000 is 7.5 million. Last year, South African tourism earned US $5.7 billion, with 37,000 direct and 74,000 indirect job opportunities having been created. One direct and two indirect job opportunities would be created by each 33 additional visitors. "No other industry has such potential," he said. "Tourism is a powerful engine for job-creation, economic revival and will generate much-needed foreign currency," said President Nelson Mandela. Experts in the industry said tourism, which can be one of the most powerful engines of an African renaissance, is becoming a major driving force behind economic growth in Africa, and is expected to create another three million jobs by 2000. Zambia Seen Benefiting from Zimbabwe Land Reforms, December 28 1997 Zambia's farmers' union has predicted a "great leap forward'' for the country's agricultural sector if neighboring Zimbabwe carried out a controversial plan to seize 1,700 mainly white-owned farms. A monthly union publication said significant numbers of Zimbabwean farmers were likely to leave and could make their way to Zambia, helping to boost crop output and raise levels of expertise in the southern African country. "Our neighbor is about to throw out a priceless commodity, something which cannot be bought but which takes years, if not generations, to develop, namely skill, experience and an understanding of and commitment to the business of farming". Zambia should be ready to receive this unexpected windfall with open hands,'' it said in its December edition. The publication said it was not unreasonable to expect a tenfold increase in tobacco production over the next five years and the same for beef, paprika, vegetables, soya, cotton, coffee and maize. Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's government recently announced it planned to take 5.5 million hectares (13.7 million acres), about half Zimbabwe's prime commercial farmland, mainly from white farmers to resettle landless blacks. It has said it would pay for buildings and improvements but not for the land, saying Britain could compensate the whites who descend from British settlers. The proposal has been criticized by economists as certain to ruin agriculture, which contributes 20 percent to gross domestic product and provides 60 percent of inputs to the manufacturing industry. Tanzania to Revive Steam Trains, December 28 1997 The Tanzania Railways Corporation (TRC) plans to rehabilitate two steam locomotives for use by up-market tourists. One train has already been repainted in the old East Africa Railways colors and it has the distinction of being the only fully operational steam locomotive in East Africa. Easier Air Access to South Africa, December 28 1997 Travelers from over 380 cities worldwide now have easier access to and from South Africa following a code-share agreement between KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and US carrier Northwest Airlines. KLM operates seven Johannesburg flights a week to and from Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam, five of which continue on to Cape Town. All will be operated under KLM and Northwest Airlines codes. Worldwide, the arrangement utilizes the fleets and routes of both carriers. Northwest Airlines' Alec Turner was upbeat about what the code-share means to further stimulate already significant tourist and business passenger flows from the US. "United States travelers like the re-assurance of seeing destinations covered by their own carriers and typically feel more comfortable booking with a US airline," he said. The seamless travel arrangements now available between the two countries has been configured specifically with the needs of international travelers in mind, says Simone Wickenhagen, KLM's general manager for Southern Africa. "Schedules are coordinated to provide quick, convenient connections," she says, "while passengers can say goodbye to their baggage until the final destination is reached." Kenya may Scrap Hunting Ban, December 21 1997 Owners of private ranches and sanctuaries in Kenya are campaigning for the ban on big game hunting to be repealed. Their campaign is backed by the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), a state body charged with protecting wildlife in Kenya's 59 game and marine parks. Big game hunting was outlawed in Kenya 20 years ago. "If hunting will improve conservation outside the national parks, that's fine with us," KWS Director Dr. David Western told a recent workshop called by his agency to sensitize landowners to the importance of conservation and of protecting wildlife and its habitat. The workshop ended with the formation of the "Kenya Landowners Wildlife Forum (KLWF)," which aims to help lay a realistic basis for decisions and policies that are good for wildlife, the land and landowners. An estimated 60 to 70 percent of Kenya's wildlife lives outside protected areas and this makes the conservation of game on communal and private lands vitally important for the health of the nation's wildlife resource base. "The cost of maintaining these animals has always been borne by the landowners," said Western. Surveys carried out in Laikipia and Taita-Taveta, two districts where limited game hunting and culling have been going on a trial basis since 1992, the wildlife population density has increased three-fold whereas, it has decreased drastically in other places. "It has proved that the new paradigm of utilization is clearly good for the wildlife," said Western. No Increase in Poaching Since Cites, December 21 1997 Leading wildlife groups in southern Africa have strongly denied reports that there has been a marked increase in elephant poaching since the June 1997 Cites meeting held in Zimbabwe. "Animal rights groups are seeking to convince the world that there has been an increase in the rate of elephant poaching in Africa because of Cites' recent decision to downlist the African elephant," said Rob Munro, general secretary of the Zimbabwe Trust. "The Wildlife and Environment Society of South Africa-together with the Zimbabwe Trust, and their partners in the Southern African region, who have been closely monitoring the effects of the Cites decision-is confident that there has been no measurable increase in elephant poaching so far." The Cites' decision is a prelude to the resumption of controlled ivory trade, which-once certain conditions of control are met, and provided there is no escalation in elephant poaching--could resume on a limited scale by mid-1999. However, animal rights groups allege that the decision has already resulted in an increase in the rate of elephant poaching in Africa. A series of claims, notably from UK-based Care for the Wild and the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), point to an elephant massacre taking place in Kenya with a total of 29 elephants poached during September alone. However, these claims have been officially denied by the Kenyan Wildlife Service (KWS). A recent letter to The Sunday Telegraph, challenges a report that had been published in that newspaper. In it, the director of KWS, Dr. David Western said: "Despite an above-average figure before the Cites meeting, the average monthly figure since has been less than four-well below the 1992 to 1996 average of eight. "There has not, in other words, been an increase in ivory poaching in recent months or years, despite elephants increasing at over 1,000 a year, and spreading further from protection of parks since 1990. Kenya will make it known if there is any substantial change in ivory poaching rates." Wildlife and Environment Society board member, Dr. Bruce Davidson, supports the KWS saying that: "With our partners, we have been investigating every claim of which we have been made aware-many of which are at best only anecdotal-and it appears that poaching levels may even be lower than they were before Cites." Conservationists in Southern Africa are alarmed by the unfounded numbers being spread and portrayed as facts by animal rights groups.to raise funds. ANC Meets to Bid Farewell to Mandela as Leader, December 21 1997 President Nelson Mandela, now 79, has stepped down as leader of the African National Congress, a party which he led to power three years ago in all-race elections, putting paid to three centuries of white domination. In his place, Thabo Mbeki, his appointed heir, has taken over as party president. Mbeki, an urbane 55-year-old former communist, who lacks Mandela's charisma and ease in public, is almost certain to take over as president of the country in 1999. Mandela insists that his departure should cause no concern as a stable succession is ensured. "I am enjoying my last year as ceremonial president. Thabo Mbeki is already de facto president of the country. I am pushing everything to him....My stepping down will be very smooth. It won't bring about any disruption.'' "The Cape of Good Hope" Sails to Sea Point, December 14 1997 Visitors to Cape Town, South Africa can now sail from Simonstown Harbor to Cape Point or Seal Island on board an air-conditioned, luxury catamaran named "The Cape of Good Hope". The boat does two trips a day to Cape Point and Seal Island, as well as a sunset cruise around False Bay. The Australian-built vessel can transport up to 146 passengers in spacious cabins on two levels. The catamaran can be chartered for tour groups, private parties and corporate functions. More than a million people visited Cape Point by car or bus over the 1996-97 season. Chimpanzees Most Threatened by Illegal Hunting, December 14 1997 Chimpanzees, who are already threatened by human-carried diseases and the loss of their habitat, now face an even greater threat - poachers. Jane Goodall, the British scientist renowned for her study of chimpanzees, said logging roads winding deep into African forests have left chimpanzees vulnerable to the poachers, who find ready markets for the meat at home but also as far away as Europe. "I think the bush meat trade is probably the greatest danger in many central and west African countries," Goodall said. "What was subsistence hunting is now business." Together with the destruction of forests for
firewood and lumber, the hunting of chimpanzees has
reduced their population to 250,000 in 21 African
countries from 2 million at the turn of the century,
Goodall said. U.S. Businessman Developing Huge Game Park in Mozambique, December 14 1997 Few things are normal about the Matatuine region of southern Mozambique. The scrub land is untouched and the beaches are pristine. Elephants graze in tall reeds and shy game animals like red forest duiker and gray reedbuck bounce through the brush. They are the surprising survivors of 15 years of civil war and drought that decimated wildlife in the rest of the southeast African nation. The unusual blend of wildlife and rare environmental features gained the area designation as one of the world's 200 special biodiversity sites by the 1992 U.N. Earth Summit. Now an American businessman wants to build a huge game park and resort complex in the 580,000-acre territory almost the size of Rhode Island complete with a five-star hotel, floating casinos and bush lodges with access to the tropical coast and wild interior. The government-approved project would bring badly needed investment and tourism to one of the world's poorest countries, struggling to recover from the war that ended in 1992. But it also would change forever the environmental balance of the Matatuine area, which begins just 18 miles south of Maputo, the capital. And it probably would displace most of the 15,000 people living in the region. The driving force is John Blanchard III, a New Orleans millionaire who made his fortune dealing in gold, including mining in South Africa and neighboring Botswana. Blanchard, 53, also backed the conservative Mozambique National Resistance in its civil war with the then Marxist government. He says that support somehow earned the government's respect for his interest in the country. In a telephone interview, he told how the government asked him after the country's first multiparty election in 1994 what further help he could provide. His answer was the game park, for which he has promised to raise $800 million from international business interests. "The government does not have the resources to develop the area itself," said Arlindo Langa, director of the National Tourism Directorate. "The project is an excellent opportunity to protect the environment. ... At the same time, it will contribute to economic development and benefit local communities." The resort plan envisions building hotels and lodges on the beach to lessen impact on the interior. Tourists would gamble on floating casinos, snorkel in the coral reefs and view ocean wildlife that includes whale sharks and dugongs sea mammals that prompted mermaid legends. They would travel inland only on wildlife safaris. Police Teargas, Club Zimbabwe Tax Protesters, December 14 1997 Zimbabwean riot police teargassed and clubbed workers to stop them demonstrating in Harare last Tuesday. An estimated 150,000 workers staged peaceful marches in other major centers of the southern African state. Industries across the country were closed as workers observed the half-day strike. Many government offices were empty and Zimbabwe's major financial markets, including the stock exchange and the local money market, were not trading due to the strike. Political tension has been running high since President Robert Mugabe's government used extraordinary powers to impose a new tax package Dec. 1, which includes an increase in sales tax, higher fuel and electricity prices. Unions are demanding the government scrap the taxes and cut its spending to finance the payments. Many officials condemned police use of teargas as ``barbaric and unjustified'' heavy-handedness. Witnesses said police initially attacked some 500 people assembled in Africa Unity Square before spreading across most of the city, spraying teargas and chasing and clubbing pedestrians. Mugabe, 73, the country's sole ruler since the end of white rule in then Rhodesia 17 years ago, addressed the nation Tuesday on social and economic issues but made no mention of the tax dispute that led to protests during the day. But one of Mugabe's top officials, Information Minister Chen Chimutengwende, dragged Zimbabwe's white farmers into the dispute, accusing them of instigating the protests to get at the government over its plans to seize their land to resettle black peasants. The government has gazetted a list of 1,503 farms, mostly owned by whites, which it wants to forcibly buy for the land reform scheme. It says it will only pay for improvements and not the land because British immigrants allegedly seized the land from blacks when they colonized the country in the 1890s. Most people scoffed at Chimutengwende's accusations, saying the government was in the habit of playing racial politics in the face of social pressures. "The race card cannot win this time. The workers have genuine grievances,'' Mr. Tsvangirai of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions told reporters. Zimbabwe's President Removes Taxes, December 14 1997 Hours after facing Harare's biggest-ever demonstrations, the Zimbabwe government climbed down on a special levy to raise money for war veterans' pensions. Zimbabwe's massive nationwide strike was marred by violence on Tuesday as heavily armed riot police fired tear gas at demonstrators in the capital, Harare. The demonstrators gathered peacefully in front of parliament where they were surrounded by police who fired hundreds of tear gas canisters, then baton-charged the crowd. The police charge caused the crowd to turn angry, and rioting broke out, with car windows smashed and buses and trucks torched. Trade union leaders and government critics accused police of sparking the violence, and noted that protests in other towns, where police kept away, had been peaceful. Catholic Justice and Peace Commission director Michael Auret said: "The police created the violence. They were in contempt of court." All major roads leading to Harare were sealed by riot police to prevent public transport from entering the city. A civil servant, Felix Mungate, said: "The brutal behavior by police today reflects government's senseless sensitivity to criticism. This infringes our freedom of expression, assembly and association." A Harare political commentator noted that taxpayers are protesting against the government's "lack of respect for their right to civic participation in public affairs." Two Rhinos Airlifted from South Africa to Tanzania, December 7 1997 Two black rhinos were airlifted this week from their home in South Africa to Seronera, Tanzania. The mother rhino and her calf, which got off a military plane, were received by the Ngorongoro District Commissioner, Emos Mphuru, on behalf of the government of Tanzania. The calf, two and a half years old, has been named Thandi Lushuge Rankoi, in honor of the South African ambassador to Tanzania who played a very important role in bringing the two rhinos to east Africa. The veterinarian who accompanied the rhinos, Moris Kileo, of the Tanzanian National Parks Department, said the mother rhino, called Ms Phanton, is pregnant. The transfer of the two rhinos is part of an ongoing effort to conserve the endangered species which, due to poaching, has diminished from 10,000 in number in 1960s to 2,400 today. Tanzanian wildlife experts have said that there are less than 15 rhinos in the Ngorongoro crater. Approval given for Elephant Capture in Namibia, December 7 1997 The capture and relocation of 20 elephants is to be put out to tender in a bid to curb the menace caused by the giant animals to people in the Kunene region of Namibia. All revenue from the capture and translocation of the 20 elephants from farms in the Outjo area is to be deposited in the Game Products Trust Fund. In making this decision, the Namibian Cabinet noted that the elephant population in the Kunene region had recovered drastically over the past few years. Presently about 400 elephants are roaming the region. This has led to increased conflict over water and access routes between humans and the elephants. The Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism has fielded numerous complaints from local communities wishing to prevent further damage to their property, as well as human deaths. Hippo takes a Dip in Lodge's Pool, December 7 1997 Residents at a South African game lodge this last October awoke to find a surprise visitor splashing and snorting in the swimming pool. Sometime during the night, a young male hippo had taken up residence, apparently looking for protection from rival bulls in the vicinity. The hippo had been sniffing around the lodge in recent weeks. "We've had him for about three weeks now. He was wandering around the camp at night, just drinking water from the pool, and he was eating grass. But he's not very aggressive," says Susan Greyling, an employee of the Lowhills Game Lodge in Crocodile Valley. Even though this particular bull might have been mild mannered, hippos are generally feared and treated with respect. They are responsible for more deaths every year than crocodiles. The good news for swimmers at the lodge was that, as the African sun dipped below the horizon, the hippo simply walked up the stairs of the pool and disappeared into the night. Return to Weekly Update Archive |
