After the government sent out letters requesting sponsorship for its Minister of Travel and Tourism ,Walter Muzembi was proud in publicly announcing their first success having begun his campaign inApril 2016. ” I need to state upfront that NetOne has become the first corporate to respond to our clarion call to support our campaign for the position UNWTO Secretary General.” The sponsorship the Minister has received includes US$10 000 worth of publicity in the Zimbabwean Travel magazine and all his communication needs catered to. The Minister also received a Huawei P9 lite, a netone sim card, five US$100 one fusion recharge cards, 55 international calling minutes and 8 500 MB mobile data. The Minister proudly remarked ” I will take it upon myself to explain what one fusion means.”
The confidence in his race is emanating from having secured an endorsement in the form of a letter from The President of the Republic of Zimbabwe His Excellency R.G Mugabe. Minister Mzembi could not stop expressing his gratitude because other aspiring candidates lack Presidential backing. The Minister has been endorsed by the AU as well to run the race against candidates from Morocco, Korea, Brazil, Mexico, Venezuela and the former Minister of Tourism in Seychelles. He stands firm in his confidence that he is carrying this cross not only for Zimbabwe but Africa as a whole and thus he will not be intimidated and will focus on his vision.
The existence of two internal candidates (Brazil and Venezuela ), who he believes will follow administrative tradition, has given him a glimmer of hope that his fresh mindedness and willingness to implement change will shut down naysayers who have questioned whether Zimbabwe can be entrusted with the administration of global tourism.
The Executive council made of 33 of the UNWTO (10 Africans ,10 Europeans,5 South Asians,5 Americans and 3 representatives from the middle East) will meet in Madrid (Spain) on the 11th -12th of May to elect the new Secretary General. If Minister Walter Mzembi wins, he will be the first leader from the African continent to occupy the post of Sec. General since the organisation was established in 1957 (under a different name). On the home front, he has overseen the number of tourists to Zimbabwe grow to 1.1 billion at the year ended 2016 since having inherited it with 200 million tourists in 2009. NetOne might have just associated its self with UNWTO’s next Secretary General.