The tourist camp at Matopos is a disgrace. Although we were told that staff were living only in two lodges, it was very clear that they were living all over the camp in tourist lodges. Worse than that, their drunken visitors walked the compound on and off during the night as if they owned the place – shouting and gesturing so loudly as to wake us up. Not one light in the communal ablution facilities worked. There was no light in any toilet, shower, or even on the outside of the building – and the facilities were disgusting. The smell, the complete lack of hot water, the peeling paintwork, the horribly stained hand-basins and the lack of a toilet seat simply epitomised what the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority are currently all about.
How do they expect to attract international tourists to places such as this, when they make their paying guests live like savages? And apart from some vervet monkeys and baboons, we didnt see any animals in two days.
Most people are by now well aware of the numerous underhanded things that continue to go on inside of Zimbabwes National Parks underhanded things that the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority deny, deny, deny. And yet all of Zimbabwes wildlife groups (and even organisations like the SPCA) now have absolute proof of the constant unethical goings-on. Things like sport-hunting of elephants, the stealing of wild elephants for the captive elephant-back-riding industry, and the blatant slaughter of our wildlife to feed their staff.
Perhaps if those tasked with protecting our wildlife and encouraging tourists to visit it, were not so preoccupied with eating and destroying it instead, we might finally get some tourists back to our beloved country.
It is time for the Parks Authority management to get out of their fat offices and their flashy cars, and stop all of their denials. And it is surely time for concerned officials within the unity government to finally take some action, to rid this Authority of all of its corruption, greed and laziness before all of our wildlife, and the tourists, disappear for good. DISGUSTED, by e-mail
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