Botswana: Future of Maun landscape will be signed and sealed today

Monday could be a very interesting day in the 98-year history of Maun, long known as the tourism and safari capital of Botswana and indeed world famous as we have noticed with the TV program “Bush Pilots” which highlights the activities of young men and women from all over the world keen to learn their craft over the dense foliage and desert of the Okavango delta and elsewhere.

On that day, at Matlapeneng Kgotla, details of a planned six-story hotel will be divulged – and if acceptable to the public (or rather big business with political connections) an eyesore for the future on the Maun landscape will be signed and sealed.

To erect such a building on a relatively small plot and in a town with acute water, sewerage and power problems is a joke, as many have pointed out on social media. They have also said it would ruin the image of Maun and our unique wildlife in the eyes of foreign tourists who do not need such luxury accommodation for an African safari. They don’t mind two-storey buildings but are dead against anything higher than that.

Aviation buffs also point out that the proposed hotel could turn out to be a danger to aircraft approaching and taking off on the new runway 08 at Maun airport.

The same argument can also be said for the old Maun Educational Park from where the animals have been relocated in order to construct another five star hotel, a golf course, a casino and a conference centre.
It will be a sad day for Maun if these plans go through – but needless to say big business and greedy politicians will have the final say, over-riding the objections of a community.