THERE MAY BE NO SAFARI HUNTING NEXT SEASON – DR RODGERS LUBILO

Unless Government moves to resolve the impasse over the cancelled Safari hunting tender and revert original dully awarded concessions, there is a likelihood that there shall be no hunting even in the next hunting season, Dr Rodgers Lubilo has cautioned.

Dr Lubilo says since the Government did not have any defence to the matter in which the High Court nullified the re-advertised Hunting Concession tender, it was the expectation of the Community Resource Boards (CRBs) that there shall be no appeal against the High Court judgement but move to correct their mistake by reverting to the cancelled tender.

Dr Lubilo, the chairperson of the Zambia Community Based Natural Resource Management said there was a possibility that Safari hunting could suffer three seasons without business unless government moved to execute the High Court judgement.

He said if the High Court Judgement was not going to be respected by government, Safari hunting business was going to suffer yet another season of loss of business.

Dr Lubilo said the drama that had characterised the Safari hunting in which the Ministry of Tourism cancelled all the 19 Hunting Concession Agreements (HCAs) tender was uncalled for as it had ended up into government losing the case which would be a cost to the Stater,” he said

He said it was the interest of the communities and their chiefs that the decision of the High Court was going to be respected by government and that the CRBs did not see how government would move to appeal against a judgement for which it not have any defence.

“Unless the government moves to resolve the impasse surrounding the cancelled Safari hunting tender, there is a likelihood that even next season, there shall be no Safari hunting business next season. We are likely to run for three season without Safari hunting business. Our expectation is that following the High Court Judgement, government should move and resolve the matter by reverting to cancelled tender. The 19 Hunting Concession Agreements is the only document of reference for now and let the rightful outfitters get their contract so they can begin to hunt next season,” Dr Lubilo said.

He said government should consider normalizing the process and ensure that it got on the table with stakeholders to discuss how best the hunting blocks could be given to the rightful bidders who had been awarded the contracts.

Dr Lubilo explained that government should not pretend that nothing had happened after the landmark High Court judgement because guidance had been provided and it was therefore up to government to ensure the right decision was made.

“If there shall be no movement or action from government, we shall move to remind government about it because people cannot pretend that nothing happened. The High Court judgement was a landmark one and as we stand, the only document we can refer to after the nullification of the re-advertised tender is the cancelled 19 Hunting Concession Agreements. The High Court has given guidance on the re-advertised tender and government even as a loser will have to act on the judgement,” Dr Lubilo said.