Africa Wild

this gate is in the approval phase and the project will have a construction term of two years.

Ms D Carter (Cope) to ask the Minister of Small Business Development:
Whether her department has begun to create plans to enable entrepreneurs in the townships to develop a commercial hub and craft centres

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REPLY:
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2. The Shangoni Gate Feasibility study and post feasibility intervention projects: The Craft Hub (Limpopo)

There is a plan to develop a brand new tourism destination and economic development hub adjacent three villages. The total population of the three key villages of Miningisi, Muyexe and Altein is approximately 13 400 people. Unemployment is high and education, as well as income levels is low.

My department is involved in this plan together with the Limpopo government, SanPARKS and traditional leaderships. There are challenges to this plan ranging from land ownership and infrastructure to social cohesion. However, the Shangoni Gate project can make an important contribution towards local economic development. The components of the Hub include a petrol station, convenience shop, curios and crafts, tourism information office, museum and interpretation centre, meeting and training facilities, info shops, community owned chalets and restaurant, auditorium and events lapa, adventure centre and base for guided tours and trails, general dealer and liquor shop.

3.1.3 Tourism
With a prime national park, nature reserves and game farms covering almost half of the district, the Mopani district
has been identified as one of the five best conserved ecosystems in the world, providing ample opportunity for Eco
Tourism and development (Mopani District Municipality, 2010). The district has a large number of diverse, underexploited
tourism assets, e.g. the northern portion of the KNP. One of the major boosts for tourism in the Mopani
district is the planned opening of a new access gate (the Shangoni gate) to the Kruger National Park in the Greater
Giyani municipality. The new gate makes it about 90 km from the Shingwedzi camp to Giyani (via the Shangoni
gate), whilst it is more or less 190 km if one uses the Punda Maria Gate. The proposed new gate would physically
be in the Thulamela local municipality, but the main access road would be via Giyani (which falls under Greater
Giyani local municipality).
Nomsa Khandlhele, the head of Local Economic Development in Giyani, said the project would be a huge boost to
the municipality in terms of creating jobs. “We view this project as an opportunity for us to create a platform for
our local business people to develop and do more businesses that will create more jobs”. According to Kruger
National Park managing director Abby Sibiya, “the road will halve tourists’ traffic for both Phalaborwa Gate and
Phunda Maria Gate in Thulamela municipality, since it is in the middle.” The local authorities feel that the project
is going to be significant, because diverting tourism traffic to Shangoni Gate is going to accelerate development in
the communities along the access road by creating jobs.
It is envisioned that the well-constructed road network will be busy, with tourists driving to and from the KNP to
buy food, crafts and other goods and services from the numerous locally owned and operated shops, markets,
stalls, entertainment facilities, guest houses and historical sites. The local residents will be moving to and from work
and delivering or buying goods for trade. The villages will be transformed into attractive and functional places,
which offer the whole range of basic social and economic opportunities associated with a "sustainable human
settlement" where people can live, work and play. The improved access for tourists that will be brought about by
the development of roads and bridges to the Shangoni Gate will be extended to a network that will serve three
villages (Altein, Mninginisi, and Muyexe) and integrate them into the tourism value chain and mainstream of
regional social and economic development. The improved access will entice many other investments by
government and private sector in infrastructure and facilities and generally improve service delivery in the area
with visible impacts on livelihoods, health, life expectancy, education, skills levels and enterprise development,
which sets the scene for sustainable growth into the future. Additionally, the development will improve the link
between South Africa and Mozambique and as a gateway to the Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park. In this way, the
development will connect communities, municipalities and countries. This vision is entrenched in the IDC
Development Charter signed by all project stakeholder representatives in September 2012.
Other developments are also planned for the KNP. In June 2011, the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs
responded to question 1564 in the National Assembly that SANParks plans to build more low impact rustic Tsendze
style tented camps in the future. He indicated that the list of concepts, which are currently in the early planning
stage, include the following: a rustic camp site on the upper Shingwedzi River where the envisaged Shangoni Gate
and corridor is being planned, a rustic camp (tented possibly) in the Pafuri and/or Punda Maria area and a rustic
camp (tented) on the northern bank of the Letaba River. These are, however, all at a pre-feasibility phase and the
final decision in terms of design and location have not been made

Toko wrote:the Mopani district
has been identified as one of the five best conserved ecosystems in the world, providing ample opportunity for Eco
Tourism and development (Mopani District Municipality, 2010). The district has a large number of diverse, underexploited
tourism assets, e.g. the northern portion of the KNP. One of the major boosts for tourism in the Mopani
district is the planned opening of a new access gate (the Shangoni gate) to the Kruger National Park in the Greater
Giyani municipality.