Renowned wildlife painter Larry Benjamin Norton has filed a fresh High Court application seeking the demolition of Baines Restaurant, arguing that it was constructed in a restricted area within the precincts of Victoria Falls, a site accorded World Heritage status in 1989, the Zimbabwe Independent can reveal.
In 2022, Norton, alongside nine other applicants, filed a High Court application challenging the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) for issuing Scanner Investments with a permit to establish Baines Restaurant in what he considers an ecologically sensitive area at the heart of Zimbabwe’s premium tourism destination. The application also contested ZimParks’ decision to issue another entity, Adage Success, with a permit to set up a commercial enterprise within Victoria Falls.
However, the legal proceedings, presided over by retired High Court judge Justice Webster Chinamora, was not concluded after the “learned judge stepped away from the bench before the final matter could be determined”, according to legal documents seen by the Independent.
In the latest application filed at the High Court on January 15, Norton lists Scanner Investments, ZimParks, and the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Barbara Rwodzi as the first, second, and third respondents, respectively. The Minister of Environment, Climate, and Wildlife Sithembiso Nyoni is also listed as the fourth respondent, according to the court papers.
He seeks to have the lease agreement between ZimParks and Scanner Investments declared null and void and demands the demolition of Baines Restaurant within 30 days from the court’s ruling.
Additionally, Norton calls for a government-led investigation to determine whether the restaurant falls within the protected area of Victoria Falls.
Excerpts from the application, filed by Whatman and Stewart Legal Practitioners representing Norton, read: “To the defendants named above: The plaintiff has instituted proceedings against you for an order declaring that: the 3rd and 4th defendants carry out a joint investigation into whether the restaurant known as Baines Restaurant is in the protected Red Zone of the World Heritage Site known as Victoria Falls.
“The restaurant known as Baines Restaurant to be removed within thirty calendar days of this order, failing which the Sheriff of the High Court for Bulawayo be and is hereby ordered to remove the same, and the 1st defendant to pay the plaintiff’s costs on a legal practitioner and client scale.”
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As the documents further show, despite Norton’s 2022 application: “Notwithstanding an extant case and the initial hearing of same in favour of the plaintiff and his fellow applicants, the 1st defendant (Scanner Investments) proceeded with its developments and constructed the edifice on the banks of the Zambezi Valley directly above Victoria Falls, known as Baines Restaurant.
“This restaurant is extremely visible, and its construction makes it clear that it is a permanent structure with seating and parking for over 150 persons, including ablutions and a kitchen for large numbers.”
Norton argues that the restaurant in question was in the restricted area of Victoria Falls.
“The site of the restaurant is in the classified Red Zone, defined as a highly-sensitive ecological zone, and construction in this area is in violation of international treaties and the Unesco provisions demarcating the site as a World Heritage Site,” the application reads.
“Victoria Falls is one of the seven natural wonders of the world, which in 1989, Unesco, at the request of the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe, declared Victoria Falls, the upstream river, its banks and islands, and the downstream gorge as a World Heritage Site.”
