Hwange pushes for twinning deal with Namibian town

HWANGE Local Board (HLB) is engaged in talks with Namibia's Gobabis municipality for a twinning arrangement which it hopes will improve service delivery.

The latest HLB report shows that the local authority wants to ride on the cordial bilateral relations between Zimbabwe and Namibia to finalise the twinning arrangement.

According to the report, HLB town secretary Ndumiso Mdlalose said the twinning arrangement had been on the cards since 2019.

"We are now looking forward to doing so (signing of twinning agreement), in the forthcoming State visit to Namibia," Mdlalose said.

"We are looking forward to a good twinning partnership, which will bring many benefits to our communities and councils.

"Bringing people from different countries together gives an opportunity for sharing of problems, exchanging views and understanding different viewpoints on any issue where there is a shared interest or concern."

He added: "Gobabis is in the Omaheke region, which has a rich history in cattle farming. We might take a leaf from them on how to enhance livestock production in communal areas since we are located in a dry area where crop production doesn't yield much."

Gobabis also has its own local airport. Mdlalose said Hwange would benefit through adoption of an environmentally-friendly charcoal production process like in the southern African country.

"The Namibians have got an environmentally-friendly way of producing charcoal without depleting their indigenous trees like what's happening locally, whereby the existence of trees such as Mopane is now under threat due to illegal charcoal production."

In Namibia most of the charcoal is made from the harvesting of bushes that invade the savannah.

Zimbabwe's ambassador to Namibian, Rofina Chikava and Namibia ambassador to Zimbabwe, Niklaa Kandjii were part of a Namibia trade mission to Zimbabwe hosted by HLB and Hwange Rural District Council recently.

The main aim of the trade mission was to engage the Zimbabwean business community, industries, economic sectors such as mining, agriculture, tourism, and manufacturing to explore the opportunities and viability of using the Walvis Bay Port and the Zimbabwe Dry Port Facility for exports and imports to and from Zimbabwe.