adminMarvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
A GHANAIAN mayor has pledged to help change the negative perception the outside world has about Zimbabwe saying the country is a safe tourist destination. Samuel Fleischer-Kwabi, who led a delegation from Ghana during a recent visit to Gwanda Town, said he was surprised that the outside world had been fed with wrong information about Zimbabwe.
The Suhum Municipal Assembly mayor said the foreign media has portrayed the country as an unsafe place for one to visit, which he has since realised, was untrue.
“You’ve a very wonderful country but it’s not being portrayed as such to the outside world. I think that we need to do a lot to project the image of this country because when I was coming here I was wondering what kind of people we’re coming to meet, the situation and whether we could walk across the streets alone but it’s wonderful what we’re seeing here,” said Kwabi.
He said the delegation would go back to Ghana and correct the wrong perceptions people had about Zimbabwe.
The delegation said it was overwhelmed by the hospitality of people in the country.
“We’re going to be the ambassadors of this country when we meet our countrymen, we’re going to tell them to take a trip to Zimbabwe and they’ll be surprised that in Zimbabwe there is total freedom,” Kwabi added.
“We enjoyed our stay here in Zimbabwe, there are really wonderful people and we enjoyed the food as well. This isn’t going to be the last time for us to come here, we’ll visit again.
“The way the people behave generally is second to none, everybody shows a lot of respect not only to us as visitors but to their fellow countrymen and I think it’s a wonderful thing.”
The four-member delegation from Ghana was in the country to conduct an International Peer Review (IPR) exercise under the Strengthening Transnational Partnerships and Networks for Enhancing Local Governance Project (STRAP), funded by the European Union (EU).
Gwanda and Suhum entered into a partnership, which involves assessing their local authorities on good governance.
Under the project, the municipalities share knowledge and seek to learn from each other’s experiences on issues also to do with enhancement of service delivery.
Some businesses in Ghana have also expressed interest in investing in the mining and real estate industries in Gwanda.
Online Reporter