Prominent Zimbabwean wildlife and landscape painter Larry Benjamin Norton says the survival of the Victoria Falls is at stake amid the sprouting of developments that threaten the status of the world heritage site.
Norton (LN) made the warning when he appeared on the platform In Conversation with Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube (TN) to talk about his work and his activism meant to protect one of the Seven Wonders of the World.
Below are extracts from the interview.
TN: Greetings, Welcome to In Conversation with Trevor, brought to you by Heart and Soul Broadcasting Services. Today I’m in conversation with Larry Benjamin Norton, a wildlife and landscape painter.
LN: Okay, it is such an honour to be here and lovely to see you again.
TN: Larry, we are having this conversation when one of our colleagues Blessed Mhlanga has been in prison now for 57 days.
It pains my heart. There is never a moment when I don't think of Blessed and I have visited him a couple of times in prison.
Why I mention this is that around about 2000 or 2001 Clive Matthew, Clive Wilson, Sarah Thompson and myself, we got into trouble and Marc Jevondica was abducted and tortured and during that period of pain, anguish and uncertainty, you came up with these four beautiful paintings.
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And you said, guys, for the work that you're doing for the nation, thank you.
And one of those paintings, that painting for me, still hangs in my home. You love this land.
You are patriotic and doing such great work in terms of capturing amazing moments and we will get to discuss and show the viewers out there, the 12 paintings, you are in the process of painting.
Can you just unpack to us? One, why are you doing this? And secondly, what it all entails.
LN: Trevor, I'm now 62, and I've lived through some tumultuous years in this country, but on our farm, my father, he bought it in 1958.
And at that time, the government, the Rhodesian government, was allowing open-cost chromising on the Dyke.
And he put together a case he fought at any one and he preserved it.
Anyway, it carries on today and those are other stories. But I watched an incredible farm disintegrate.
I went back not so long ago and the huge scars where the Chinese have been able to mine up in the Great Dyke, on the farm.
A few years ago, I started to see what was happening in the Falls. And I saw what was happening in the country.
And it broke my heart to see our greatest resources being destroyed and being looted.
And I decided there and then that I would fight for this. In Victoria Falls in about 2012 with an amazing woman, Yvonne Janels, we had formed Friends of Victoria Falls and we had tried to say at that time, we need to have a master plan here and we need to pay attention or this place is going to get overrun. It's a delicate place. It's a delicate place.
And Nathan Shamuyarira in 1987 quoted in The Herald said, Victoria Falls will not become Niagara Falls.
And Niagara Falls has been commercialised to such an extent their hotels are leaning over the edge of it. And if we don't stop these things right now, that will be the fate of Victoria Falls.
And the short answer to that is people can go anywhere in the world. Once Vic Falls loses its incredible natural beauty and wonder, it's gone. And the whole city that is now there will not have the attraction that it had before.
TN: There's already a warning, Larry, in 2022, Unesco warned that Victoria Falls risks losing its heritage status due to development of infrastructure in restricted zones.
LN: Yes. That's a warning that we need to take seriously.
TN: Are we taking that warning seriously?
LN: I mean, Trevor, you know, so it's a long story, but we launched a court case myself and nine other local applicants from all walks of life.
And we cited what you said. This was 2022. Yeah. So it's just over three years now. We fought this.
We heard that this restaurant, Bain's Restaurant, was going to be built. We launched an urgent application to stop the building.
Three years later, we still do not have a resolution. The initial hearings, it's been diverted on technicalities on inexplicable grounds, and I say this without prejudice.
This is before the courts right now, but it has been one of the most frustrating things I have ever had to do and one of the hardest battles.
We have been blocked and frustrated at every turn. And you know, I must just pay a tribute here.
Your newspaper, they are independent. Your news editor, Tinashe Kairiza is the most incredible man.
He has reported on all the machinations in the Falls through corruption that has gone on, which is just beyond belief. The facts are there, and there's never any result.
TN: You know, as I was reading the documents that you sent me and doing my own research, the Baines Restaurant and the Qatarot Island, they are all in a red zone, meaning they shouldn't be allowed to be doing business there, am I right?
LN: So there are other developments that have occurred in the red zone. But we opposed this, the ministers have dropped the ball.
The government has dropped the ball. And this emphasis on commercialiSation at all costs is going to cost all of us.
I fight for this, for all our children, that this place can be preserved. It belongs to every Zimbabwean.
It belongs to every citizen of the world. It's one of the Seven Wonders of the World. It's a world heritage site.
It's almost a mirror of what's happening in this country where national resources are being pillaged.
And I've said, I have written five open letters.
The last one I sent directly to the minister of Environment and the minister of Tourism to try and draw their attention and to try to get them to take action.
In those letters, I have said, there are people in high places that are allowing this. It's clear, and again, I say this as my opinion.
And if you go into Victoria Falls and you read some of those articles that Tinashe has written, that cover all aspects of life in Victoria Falls. It's like the golden egg, and now it's getting raided.
I get the sense that the Mnangagwa regime and all those that are around him have decided it's our turn to eat.
And it doesn't matter how important what they're eating is for generations to come, they will eat.
They do not care. And we've seen this in so many spheres of life, but it is happening at our most valuable asset in this country. And we have to make this stop.
TN: Well, what message would you have for Zimbabweans who are watching you right now, who might not be aware of what you've been going through, who might not be aware of the pressure that you are in, and who might want to support you, what message would you have for them
LN: This is a fight that many people have fought, and, you know, all these guys have played amazing roles, but many, many ordinary Zimbabweans have helped in this fight, but in so many other fights.
I wish that we could pay credit to the lives of the Zimbabweans in this country, the unknown Zimbabweans in this country.
And there needs to be a memorial somewhere in this country that testifies to the sacrifices of unknown Zimbabweans, teachers in rural areas, people who stood up against unbelievable tyranny.*In Conversation With Trevor is a weekly show brought to you by Heart and Soul Broadcasting Services.
