The Sunday News
Dumisani Nsingo, Senior Business Reporter
THREE enterprising safari farmers in the Matetsi area of Hwange District have turned part of their farm into a private sables sanctuary in a bid to protect the animal species from being wiped out by predators and poachers.
The farmers were allocated land under Government’s land reform programme around 2000.
The trio turned their farm, Msuna Range, which is also home to other wildlife animal species such as giraffes, impalas, antelopes, water bucks, warthogs and zebras into an enterprising tourism facility.
“We started breeding the Matetsi Sables more than three years ago, we have 70 of the animals. The sole idea is to sell these animals to individuals that also seek to breed them or to keep as trophies.
“However, most hunters prefer shooting them while in the bush thus we release some of the animals into the wilderness for them to hunt down as part of their expedition,” said one of the farmers, Mr Reeds Dube.
The other members of the group are Mr Willard Sayenda and Mrs Victoria Mapolisa.
Mr Dube said the Matetsi Sables was one of the most sought after family of sables by international hunters.
The sables are fed using fresh grass as well as supplementary stockfeed acquired from a local stockfeed manufacturer in Hwange.
“Just like many wild animals these sables are not susceptible to numerous diseases but we constantly dose them to guard against calamities. Recently we had one dying due to natural causes and we reported the case to Zimparks whom we are in constant touch with and are aware of our activities,” said Mr Dube.
He also said plans were underway to construct lodges at the farm in a bid to enhance hospitality and tourism provision services.
“We are looking forward to improving the standard of our camping facilities by constructing a number of lodges. We intend to come up with upmarket lodges that will blend well with nature as we are going to construct the infrastructure using natural resources, mostly our flora.
“The lodges will also afford our guests to view wild species both fauna and flora in a tranquil environment. We are not into photographic safari but at least our guests will enjoy seeing an array of friendly wild animals,” Mr Dube said.
