Legacy Holdings to President of WECSZ

Many thanks for your e-mail. I wish to provide the following answers to your queries which I strongly believe for the purposes of transparency should be put on your website:-

We have had several meetings with ECZ during the EIA process and have also consulted extensively with the National Heritage Conservation Commission who have given us a lot of information and background concerning the World Heritage Site Convention. The Commission has confirmed in principle that our project does not violate the World Heritage Site Convention, especially given the fact that our site is further upstream from the Victoria Falls as opposed to the sun International development which is right on the lip of the Victoria Falls. We also understand that the National Heritage Conservation Commission is in communication with their offices in Europe following the presentations that have been made by some ‘interest groups’ from Zambia who have expressed their views against the Legacy project in Livingstone,

The Legacy project is in a national park which is managed by ZAWA in accordance with the Wildlife Act and the Laws of Zambia. ZAWA is therefore the bona-fide legal body and starting point in terms of project negotiations and agreement in connection with any TCA in a national park,

The TCA Legacy has signed with ZAWA has pre-conditions which make it encumbent upon Legacy to obtain approval of the EIA from the ECZ before project implementation,

Concerning my relationship with Mr. Mushinge at ZAWA, I recently responded to an enquiry from a freelance journalist working for the national geographic that I copied to the members of your society that Mr. Tom Mushinge at ZAWA declared interest right in accordance with corporate governance procedures right from the first time Legacy / TIZL applied for land in the MoNP. Furthermore, the ZAWA negotiations that lead to the recent signing of the TCA were headed by the Director General of ZAWA with the full blessings of their previous Board. During the same negotiations, Legacy was represented by Mr. JJ Sikazwe and a team of lawyers.

Concerning the TCZ Chairman Mr. JJ Sikazwe’s involvement with Legacy, you may wish to note that he is 100% Zambian and nothing stops him or indeed any other Zambian or indeed an investor or interested party from outside the country from participating in the wildlife sector which has for many years been dominated by only one sector of the Zambian community since time in memorial,

Legacy is working to an agreed implementation schedule, therefore the Scoping Meeting for the EIA will proceed as planned on Monday the 14th of August 2006. We has already dispatched invitation cards to all the interested and affected parties from government and the private sector including members of your society,

In our earlier e-mail to you and some of your members, we have indicated that Legacy is open to dialogue and welcomes stakeholder views that will help us to develop an eco-friendly, economically viable and sustainable project,