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‘KoBulawayo being upgraded off budget’

ENVIRONMENT, Tourism, Climate and Hospitality minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu yesterday revealed that the rehabilitation of KoBulawayo heritage site, razed down by fire 10 years ago, was being funded off the national budget, with non-governmental agencies mobilising resources. BY PATRICIA SIBANDA “It is very difficult to say but this is an off-budget financing thing and all the resources that we are seeking so far are pledges made by different agencies. Some of the resources are going to be sourced by museums, which reminds me that they are taking too long to give me the feedback as to what is going on,” he said. Ndlovu said the facility needed to be spruced up to suit tourists’ attraction status.“… Our interest really is to promote this area as a tourist destination. It's one of our cultural heritage sites which we believe has the potential especially seeing that it’s not very far from Bulawayo city,” he said. He said they initially expected to take about three months to rebuild the place into what it was before. National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe executive director Godfrey Mahachi said coming up with a budget in local currency was not feasible given the volatility in the economy. “We have been working on that ever since. We simply worked out on the material that we need, partners that we need to source for resources and I can simply say we are moving towards the right direction. We know what we require and that is mobilising resources as much as possible. “It is not possible to have a lump sum of mobilising resources because it is impossible with this economy of ours,” Mahachi said.

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