The Sunday News
Sharon Chimenya, Masvingo Correspondent
THE preservation of Great Zimbabwe monuments funded to the tune of US$475 000 through the American Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation is on course after disruptions caused by the Covid-19-induced lockdowns.
The project encompasses three areas of improvement which are the conservation of the monument’s drystone wall, dealing with the lantana camara invasive species and the improvement of the wall monitoring systems.
The National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe Southern Region Director Mr Lovemore Mandima said despite the setbacks brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic, they were now ready to start the project.
“We got the funding in 2018 end of year and we were supposed to start on the project in January 2019 for two years but unfortunately the project was stalled because of the Covid- 19 pandemic.
The project is basically in three components which are the conservation at the Great Zimbabwe mainly focusing on the dry-stone walls, the removal of lantana camara; you will note that this is an invasive species which we don’t need on such a world heritage site and we are working on removing it.
We have also entailed the electronic ways of monitoring the monument. We have basically been doing manual monitoring on the movement of the drystone wall.”
He said that in 2019 they did consultancy works on the conversation of the walls, electronic monitoring and the removal of lantana camara. Mr Mandima said the works they were currently undertaking were due to the results of reports that were generated by the consultancy.
Covid- 19
“In November 2021 we had five weeks of restoration works of lantana removal, and during the five weeks we engaged people from the five chieftainships around Great Zimbabwe. We are planning to undertake another five weeks from June where we are going to continue with the restoration of wall 72 where we are going to continue the removal of lantana camara,” he said.
Clearing of Lantana Camara at the Great Zimbabwe monuments
The removal of lantana camara at the site has improved the visibility of some structures that were engulfed by the invasive species with more access roads to the site such as the Watergate path having been cleared.
Great Zimbabwe monuments signed an agreement with the former American Ambassador Mr Brian Nichols and the World Monument Fund (WMF) in November 2018 where the US through the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation handed over US$475 000 to support the preservation work at the heritage site.
