New-look Daan Viljoen on course

The Public Private Partnership (PPP) between Namibia Wildlife Resorts (NWR) and the Prosperity Group over Daan Viljoen Game Park is expected to open for business next month.

That is after the health insurance group pumped in about N$40 million into the first phase of turning around the once loss making tourism facility, according to the group boss Kobus Struwig.’We have to turn the facility into a modern park and the revamping of the old facility made it more expensive than building a new one,’said Prosperity Group managing director Kobus Struwig.The Daan Viljoen Tourism Resort is not only expected to be turned into a general tourism facility but also into a conference and medical tourism hub.Once the refurbishment is completed, the cost might escalate to an investment of N$70 million.Struwig said the cost of the first phase which involves revamping the camp site, bungalows, restaurants and changing the general landscape at the park went up because of ‘old age’ of the resort. Daan Viljoen was built in the 1960s.The changing of the landscape involves the planting of about 100 to 120 thorn and palm trees at the park at the cost of an estimated N$200 000. The aim is to create a ‘bushy’ environment.Struwig has quashed information suggesting that Prosperity Group has spent about N$2 million on the trees which died because of devastating cold winter.’I would say about 10 to 15 per cent of the trees waned. But I mean if you plant trees you lose a certain percentage,’ he said.Prosperity subsidiary, San Karros Lifestyle Safari, signed the PPP deal with NWR in 2008 through which it has a 30 year leasing rights over Daan Viljoen.The PPP projects were part of the parastatal’s turnaround strategy aimed at transforming NWR into a profitable state tourism business. Swapo’s Kalahari and Zebra Holdings have a combined 20 per cent stake in the project.The NWR will get a certain percentage of the profit once business starts.The second phase of the project will involve turning the old restaurant at the camp into a 350 seater conference facility and the old braai area into about 10 to 12 luxury units.’The second phase is earmarked to start next year and it is estimated to cost about ten million project,’ Struwig said. The second phase will entail turning the old communal swimming pool into a big restaurant for the ‘Windhoek crowd’, according to Struwig.The third phase will see the establishment of a medical tourism park, a relatively new concept to Namibia that will involve the construction of a spa and a wellness centre. The facility will be more like a serene environment for those recovering from minor surgery and for post-stress treatment relaxation. A facility of similar nature called Safari Surgeons is based in Cape Town, according to Struwig.’This will be a concept more like a recuperation facility for selective life- style surgery amongst others,’ he said. ‘Since this is more specialized we will have to source expertise from South Africa to do the project’.This phase is expected to cost about N$15 to N$18 million and will only get off ground by 2013.

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