PEOPLE have been called upon to appreciate and preserve heritage sites as they are important tourism products, a cabinet minister has said.
The call was made by the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry Anastancia Ndhlovu during yesterday’s tour of Chiremba Balancing Rocks popularly known as Epworth Balancing Rocks showing that the historical site has been disfigured.An ablution facility and electricity structures were destroyed while veld fires were also common at the site while trees were being wantonly cut.
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| Balancing Rocks |
“Vandalism of the heritage site is reflective of the community’s attitude and perception of the heritage site.
“Thus it is pertinent that tourism awareness is increased.
“It is vital that our communities are aware and appreciative of tourism as a tool for sustainable economic and social development.
“For the preservation and conservation of the heritage site, it is necessary to encourage community participation.
“Currently the domestic tourism department is on the drive to promote and develop Community Based Tourism Enterprises (CBTEs),” said Deputy Minister Ndhlovu.
Member of Parliament for Epworth, Zalerah Makari speaking during the tour said, “We have invited the Ministry of Tourism to come here into the constituency, our main idea is to revamp local tourism, what we would call township tourism.
“We are saying that in Epworth we are rich in history, rich in culture, we want Zimbabweans to know what we have so we want to partner with the Ministry of Tourism so that we can revamp that, make the area more palatable.
“We went on tour, you did see there is a lot of history, there is a lot of geography going on but this place has not been taken care of, so we want to partner with the ministry so that we take care of our natural resources for posterity,” said MP Makari.
Speaking on the how the place had been left to deteriorate like that, MP Makari said, “Any place that is not given attention will be neglected but we are not going to focus on the negative, we want to focus on what we want to do as a constituency, as a ministry going forward.
“We want to bring people to this area so that they know what we have,” added the MP.
Godhi Bvocho, Regional Director at the National Museums and Monuments said, “the Chiremba Balancing Rocks are mainly natural features that depict a lot of information about Zimbabwean history from the Money Rock, to the Flying Boat Rock, Look Out Point as well as the rock paintings that were done by the hunter gatherer communities that still depict a lot of history for Zimbabwe.
“We have also derived a lot of elements from the balancing rocks especially our money, deriving even from the colonial period, it featured on the currency and it’s now a marker for the reserve bank of Zimbabwe.
“The area experiences a lot of challenges in terms of wood poaching, in terms of veld fires, in terms of other infrastructural developments that are needed,” said Godhi.
He added that best strategies were now needed to spruce up the place, so as to make it viable adding that there are a lot of trees and herbs and shrubs with medicinal benefits.
