THE Nyaminyami Rural District Council, a local legislator and some villagers in the area have raised questions about the delayed judgment in a case between Afropride Safaris (Pvt) Ltd and Hingerston, Hallmore (Pvt) Ltd over tender issues, that has affected communities that benefit from hunting concession proceeds.
Nyaminyami council chairperson Fastino Mawadze said they were concerned over the delayed High Court judgment from last year as it had affected cash flows and stalled development and service delivery in the area.
“The delayed judgment could have come up with the rightful winner of the tender and that could have injected money into council from hunting concessions and people would have benefited like they used to do in service delivery and infrastructural development. Council did not receive any money from hunting concessions since last year.
“The community is now lagging as it used to get money from hunting concessions. Hunting concessions are a council cash cow,” Mawadze said.
Local MP Shine Gwangwava weighed in saying the situation was becoming dire, adding that the courts should speed up the process and a tender winner declared for the sake of progress.
“Our prayer is for the High Court judge who heard the case to give judgment for progress sake. The people are suffering, the hunting safari funds come in handy for the rural people here,” he said.
A villager from Mola, Musa Negande, who used to be contracted by safari companies that won hunting tenders as a guide, said the situation this year was difficult because there was no work.
“This time the situation is bad because there is no work. I used to get employed by safari companies that would have won tenders for hunting concessions but this time around no company was awarded the tender by council,” he said.
- Omay South hunting concession raises dust
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The hunting tenders for Omay, which are now awaiting a High Court judgment were advertised by Nyaminyami RDC as tenders for two concessions namely Omay North and Omay South.
The tender conditions were that one company could only bid for one area, but Hingestone Hallamore and Kochi Safaris (HHK) bid for both areas in violation of the procurement regulations as was stated in the tender bids.
However, Nyaminyami RDC chief executive Cletus Matingwina overruled the procedure and allowed HHK Safaris’s documents to be considered.
A procurement tender committee was instituted which came up with recommendations that HHK had a record of poor performance in its previous contract with Hurungwe RDC which resulted in the termination of that contract.
The Nyaminyami RDC held a full council meeting to deliberate on the procurement tender committee recommendations.
The full council resolved that the Omay South hunting concession be awarded to Afropride Safaris (Pvt) Ltd.
However, Matingwina is said to have misled the council by producing a High Court letter alleging that Afropride Safaris had a pending Supreme Court case hence it could not be awarded the tender.
The full council resolved that Afropride Safaris should be given 14 days to clear itself, failure of which the tender would be awarded to HHK.
Matingwina went on to write to HHC informing it that it had won the tender and also he wrote to Afropride Safaris asking it to clear itself before it could be awarded the tender.
Afropride Safaris was cleared and Matingwina thereafter advised Afropride that it had won the tender as per a full council resolution and was supposed to pay an acceptance fee or else the tender would be availed to HHK although the acceptance fee was never part of the tender conditions.
After realising that HHK had lost the Omay South tender, Matingwina went on to write to it informing it that it had won the Omay North concession tender.
Afropride Safaris paid the acceptance fee, but Matingwina still refused to award it the contract alleging that HHK had filed High Court papers disputing the award of the tender to Afropride Safaris.
The matter was placed before High Court judge Justice Tawanda Chitapi who reserved judgment in October 2023.
Matingwina has been arrested by Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission and is on suspension. The RDC and poor communities have been denied revenue from hunting proceeds for the past two years thus 2023 and 2024 because of the tender issue.
