SERENGETI COUNCIL NOW SUDDENLY READY TO SIGN JV AGREEMENT
In a strange turn of events, following earlier reports that the signing between Grumeti Reserves and the Serengeti District Council had bounced did news emerge overnight that the councilor who had raised the concerns appears to have changed his mind when the matter, according to his request, was tabled at the meeting of the committee to which he had wanted the entire JV document referred for review.
Information availed from Arusha now seems to indicate that the Joint Venture Agreement, verbally in place already for almost a decade, will now finally be signed next week, filling the councils coffers with some 200 million Tanzania Shillings annually for halting hunting permits in the area around Grumetis sphere of interest and influence as the source put it.
There is now of course intense speculation over the reasons of the sudden change of mind, leaving all options open of how to interpret this development, either that he has been heavily leaned on by his colleagues and in particular the council chairman who had apparently guaranteed the deal would be signed last week or else. Watch this space, should ever the truth emerge.
