CANCELLED HUNTING TENDER DEPRIVED COMMUNITIES OF REVENUE - MTAYACHALO

THE cancellation of the Hunting Concession Agreements (HCAs) was not done in the interest of Zambians and has left most of the communities that earn their living through Safari hunting in serious economic distress, Yotam Mtayachalo has said.

Mr Mtayachalo said Government should have found an alternative solution the challenges the tendering process had than unilaterally cancelling the concessions which had resulted into Safari hunting not taking place in the 2022 hunting season.

He said while it was pleasing that the Court of Appeal had ruled in favour of the Community Resource Boards (CRBs) over the cancellation of the Safari hunting concessions, the communities had been adversely affected because they had lost the revenue for the entire hunting season.

He said the Ministry of Tourism had mismanaged the hunting concession tender and that government should have explored other means of resolving the impasse with the outfitters rather than punishing communities whose lifeline depended on hunting.

Mr Mtayachalo explained that the CRBs were employers and had a lot of development and social programmes which they were engaged in but that such projects had either been halted or abandoned because of lack of resources.

“The Court of Appeal has ruled in favour of the CRBs but the hunting season is coming to an end. We can as well forget about Safari hunting this season but the biggest losers in this has been communities that depend on the business of hunting.

“The best government would have done was to sit down with outfitters and the CRBs to resolve the impasse amicably. Government should have allowed the operators whose bids were awarded to continue while working to resolve the matter in the background,” Mr Mtayachalo said.