Story by Tamuka Charakupa

THE National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe (NMMZ) has opened its doors for partnerships with private players for the preservation of national monuments and heritage sites around the country.

NMMZ is on a drive to ensure sustainable preservation of national monuments hence it is courting partners in the private sector.

This was confirmed by NMMZ Director, Dr Paul Mupira who was in Chimanimani this Monday.

“Government recently transferred the upkeep of district heroes’ acres to the NMMZ as we have been only taking care of the national and provincial acres,” said Dr Mupira.

“That left district acres with no responsible authority. As such, we are looking to facilitate their transformation and better development.”

“We are grateful to WaySide Cottage for being the first private partner to realise the importance of working with the government in making sure that Chimanimani District Heroes Acre has a facelift. We hope this is the beginning of more to come,” he said.

Wayside Cottages which has partnered with the National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe has promised to work on the facelift of Chimanimani District Heroes Acre.

“We are operating just adjacent to the Heroes Acre and we have seen it fit to adopt it so that it also reflects on the quality of our organisation. So, we are now working to ensure it gets a facelift,” noted Wayside Cottages Representative, Fabian Mugodhi.

The development has since been welcomed by various stakeholders.

“As a district, we welcome such partnerships because they project a positive image on the role of private players and their contribution to national priorities,” noted Chimanimani District Development Coordinator, Mr Tawona Nengomasha

Meanwhile, ZANU PF Chimanimani District Chair, Mr Brighton Muchuwa added “As the ruling party, this is a situation we have long calling for prioritisation given the meaning the site carries. So, the decision by the government to assign a responsible organ and its partners is a welcome development.”

Zimbabwe has several monuments and heritage sites like Great Zimbabwe which attract huge volumes of tourism traffic.