Tourism ministers from three African countries, including South Africa, met on Monday to discuss the development of a tourism initiative launched in 1997.
Representatives from Swaziland, Mozambique and South Africa held a tourism indaba in Durban to assess the Lubombo Spatial Development Initiative (SDI) launched by former president Nelson Mandela a few years ago.
South African Environmental and Tourism Minister Valli Moosa said Swaziland and Mozambique were encouraging cross-border trade and tourism by upgrading roads and border posts linking their countries at Namaacha and Goba.
Moosa also said the three countries had upgraded border posts at Kosi Bay and Golela/Lavumisa. Work has begun to rehabilitate the old Mac Mac Pass that links northern Maputaland to Swaziland through a scenic route across the Lubombo mountains.
A new tourism road linking Durban to Maputo by tar would be completed soon in South Africa. The Mozambican government is seeking finance to support and upgrade from Ponta do Ouro to Maputo.
Dr Fernando Sumbana Junior, Mozambique’s Tourism Minister, said a number of steps had been taken to allow economic growth and job creation in the eastern Swaziland, southern Maputo province and northern KwaZulu Natal.
”We have upgraded roads, built new border posts, rolled back malaria and created the protocols and co-operative agreements that will allow us to promote the beautiful wilderness areas we share as a world class tourism destination,” he said in the statement.
Prince Guduza Dlamini, minister of economic planning and development in Swaziland, said the Greater St Lucia Wetland Park project had been very successful.
Moosa earlier announced that the park, a key component of the Lubombo SDI, had attracted a massive wave of investor interest in new game lodges and beach resorts along the Indian Ocean.
”It is clear that there is huge potential to attract investment into this transfrontier tourism zone so that we can promote economic growth and job creation in all three countries,” Dlamini said.
Sumbana said Mozambique was planning to seek investment for similar developments in the Maputo Elephant Reserve that straddles the Indian Ocean between Ponta do Ouro and Maputo.
Swaziland is also actively seeking commercial partners in Germany and Belgium to develop game lodges in its Lowveld game reserves and national parks.
”One of our most important achievements has been to roll back the malaria epidemic that was killing so many of our citizens a few years ago,” Sumbana said. – Sapa