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He said Mrs Bell was now too old for the role and could not take charge of the situation.
“The problem at times is with people. How could you elect an old, inefficient leader who cannot walk for more than five minutes and has never set her foot in my office?
“Replace her with someone who has energy and the people at heart before tourism in the city is totally defunct,” said Mr Kaseke at a tourism public lecture at the Bulawayo Polytechnic last week.
He also said because of the inefficient leadership, the city was sitting on one of its most important products, its rich culture.
However, Mrs Bell hit back and said the authority was not supporting her organisation with financial resources.
She accused Mr Kaseke of launching a personal attack on her yet ZTA had done nothing to help the association financially.
She said the association was relying entirely on member subscriptions to do their day-to-day work.
“Mr Kaseke’s allegations are unfounded and he makes it a personal issue that there is no tourism development in the city yet they are not assisting us financially.
“What else can we do when we do not have money because as it is our priority is to keep the association going. I am not surprised because I always expect him to attack me yet the ZTA is doing nothing to market the city,” she said when asked by Business Chronicle to comment on Mr Kaseke’s sentiments.
Mrs Bell said the association needed more than $50 000 to fund its activities.
She said the association depended on donations and grants. “Commerce, industry and tourism are virtually struggling to keep going so they have very little money to give huge donations to associations,” she said.
She said the proceeds from the casino in Harare that were supposed to help them in their operations were being channelled to administration work instead.
Mrs Bell said they were trying their best to promote Bulawayo and surrounding areas but due to lack of funding, the task was proving difficult to implement.
She also said they were in the process of making a DVD which they hoped to sell to raise funds but it was taking a lot of time to complete as the association has no money.
“We have started making a DVD of this area that may include Hwange and Victoria Falls and we are not even sure when it will be out but hopefully soon. Once we get money we are very optimistic that things may change for the better,” she said.
Mrs Bell said the DVD would present an opportunity to market and promote the region and as such make it internationally recognised.
Mr Kaseke also said Bulawayo was lagging behind in terms of tourism development as no new hotels or guest houses had been built over the last 10 years.
He said tourism development could not take place where there was no infrastructural development.
He said it was a misconception by people that tourists should come first before there was any meaningful infrastructural development.
“In terms of tourism development, Bulawayo is seriously lagging behind because there are no new hotels or even guest houses that have been built in the last 10 years. No one at ZTA even remembers when the last hotel in the city was constructed,” said Mr Kaseke.
He also said they had tried to spur tourism development in the city but to no avail.
“Some few years back we deliberately decided to bring the Sanganai/Hlanganani Expo to Bulawayo in an attempt to spur tourism in the city but we had a dispute with the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair organising and marketing team.
“As a result of that dispute, the organising and marketing team refused to let the expo come back to Bulawayo and how are we expected to help you develop your area in terms of tourism when we fail to work together,” he said.
Mr Kaseke said besides lack of infrastructural development, there was also no product development yet the city had amazing products to offer.
Londile Moyo
Bongani Ndlovu