Mababe Zokotsama Community Development Trust (MZCDT) which serve Mababe village under the community based natural resources programme (CBNRM) are building a new office in Maun costing P 1.2 million.
The office construction started in March and is expected to end in August according to the Trust Manager Vusi Khumalo. The project marks MZCDT drive to cut on office rental costs since the trust begun operating in 2000.
Khumalo explained: ‘’We have been spending P5.500 monthly on rent and the cost of that all these years we have been renting is huge.’’
‘’In 2021 we recovered from covid and bought a commercial plot in a prime area in Sedie which cost us 480 000 for the office space. We acquired it with money we got from hunting.’’
According to Khumalo their plan is to add a ten-room guest house in the same plot after finishing the office project as the plot is big and prime.
On other developments, Khumalo explained that they have leased four campsite for four years to a Mababe resident as a way of empowering the community. The lessee monthly pays the rental. Another Mababe resident has been granted transit rights to undertake tourism activities in the concession who also pays the trust.
Trust Manager Vusi Khumalo told The Okavango Express that the new adopted management plan has zoned the concession in to four: Zone 4- hunting, Zone 3- high value zone at Mababe Depression, Zone 2- containing Mogotho Safari Lodge and Dizhana Campsite and lastly Zone 1 – where there the Mababe village, Tsaa Campsite and Nokanyane camp.
Khumalo revealed under the new management plan, a new five-star camp has been constructed at Mababe Depression. He was constructed by their joint venture in the concession, AFS. ‘
MZCDT also has a fund for the elderly, people living with disability, education for the youth as a way of empowering its community.