Break the law, Namugala orders ZAWA officer

Break the law, Namugala orders ZAWA officer
By Edwin Mbulo in Livingstone
Tue 10 Nov. 2009, 04:00 CAT

TOURISM minister Catherine Namugala and finance minister Situmbeko Musokotwane on Saturday ordered a Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) Musi-o-Tunya National Park area warden Stephen Malungo to break the law by handing back the three fishing rods he had confiscated from two South Africans found fishing in the national park without a permit.

The incident happened between 13:00 hours and 14:00 hours when the two ministers, who were on a reconnaissance visit to Greater Livingstone Tourism Area Action Plan (TAAP) Investment sites, visited one of the picnic sites along the Zambezi River banks near a place known as Dry Manzi along the Mosi-o-Tunya Road.

While at the site, Malungo approached the two South Africans who were fishing and asked if they had a permit.

“Excuse me gentlemen, do you have a permit to fish in the National Park?” he asked.
The two men answered in the negative and added that they were actually leaving the place.

“It is not about leaving, it is about breaking the law. You have already broken the law,” Malungo responded while grabbing the fishing rods. “You will find these at the ZAWA office and you can have them back after paying a fine.”

Later as the delegation was walking back to the vehicles, Namugala - who saw Malungo carrying the fishing rods - asked him what had transpired. After his explanation, Namugala requested him to hand back the rods to the two men.

“Please give them back,” she said.

But Malungo said: “If I give them back they will continue fishing behind our back.”
At this moment Musokotwane said Malungo should give back the rods and call for his officers to check on the men to see if they would continue fishing.

"Give them back, we are instructing you to break the law so break it,” Namugala told Malungo.

As the ministers left the site, Malungo noticed that the two men had already driven off and he later gave the rods to a ZAWA officer at another picnic site a few metres away.

And earlier at Protea Hotel, Livingstone Tourism Association (LTA) chairman Kingsley Lilamono told Musokotwane that Zambia was a very small tourist destination and an increase in tourism facilities would help promote competition.

“Contrary to your statement that we are scared of competition, we feel that the more stakeholders we have the better for competition. Right now we are a small destination but we hope we can have a wider selection of activities for tourists to come and be able to stay longer as now the average staying rate for tourists is two to three days,” he said.

Lilamono said the LTA was encouraged to see government trying to promote investment in the tourism sector.

“We however feel discouraged to see that what we have discussed before is not being implemented especially the issue of the Kazungula border post, this is on my head and I will not stop talking about it, because there is no paving at the area, there is a lot of dust and vehicles are blowing dust on tourists, the fencing is half way done and ESCO people say that they have run out of money,” said Lilamono.