Chester Makana

Chester Makana

The deputy minister of environmental affairs and tourism, Rejoice Mabudafhasi, pictured, will today visit tourism projects in Limpopo to offer financial assistance to boost the progress of the projects.

Mabudafhasi told a media conference yesterday that more than R42million had been budgeted to help tourism projects take off in the province.

She said her visit to the Tingwazi Project and the Modjadji Cycad Nursery Project was in response to recommendations made at the People and Parks conference last year to initiate poverty alleviation projects and to assess the progress of the initiatives.

Referring to people who had been forced off their land to make way for the establishment of nature and wildlife reserves, Mabudafhasi said: "By doing this we want people who became victims of forced evictions to benefit in the areas that are now used to house different species."

Asked about projects that were on the brink of collapse, Mabudafhasi blamed the communities concerned for failing to use their financial and other resources in a sustainable manner.

"We trained them before we gave them the projects, which were then in their hands," she said

She said the progress of the projects would be discussed at the next People and Parks conference in October.