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Raymond Jaravaza, Saturday Chronicle Correspondent
IN the heart of Mberengwa District with an architectural design that beats most city hotels, sits a diamond in the dirt but one that’s about to be polished to bring it back to its glory days of glitz and glamour.
If the phrase “a white elephant”, an idiom that was coined to describe something that has no useful purpose, then Belingwe Hotel fits the bill.
But it wasn’t always the case, many years ago the original owners, Meikles Hotel, set up the hotel to offer accommodation to the elites of then Rhodesia.The local youths, whose history of the place and its significance to Mberengwa is undoubtedly limited, simply call it “that old big white building”.
The older generation calls it by its rightful name — Belingwe Hotel — not because one expects to find bold letters of the name inscribed on the building but because the history of the iconic hotel is intertwined with Mberengwa District.
Today the hotel is no longer under the management of Meikles but is in the hands of a popular family with a rich history in Mberengwa and Zvishavane.
That family is none other than the Hall family — famous for establishing the Shu-Shine Bus Service.
Saturday Leisure travelled down to Mberengwa and met the hotel’s caretaker Artnos Maguraushe.
He says that random people used to stop by the hotel, take pictures and ask why the building had been left to decay while it is one of Mberengwa’s most iconic buildings.
“I never used to understand why people, especially the elderly, were so fascinated with the building and would always ask why the hotel was in such a bad state until I asked the owner, Mr David Hall. He explained to me that people love this hotel because it is connected to the history of Mberengwa and that famous people used to come to this place even before the country got independent,” said Maguraushe.
The renovations started three months ago and the Belingwe Hotel could be back in business mid-next year.
“Some of the original rooms are so big and spacious that we had to reduce them in size in addition to including an en suite for every room. The building itself is still in good shape but we need to add more modern features that were not there at the time the hotel was operational,” he added.
Are they not worried that competition from lodges and smaller hotels in the vicinity will hamper Belingwe Hotel’s grand re-entry into the hotel industry?
“Mr Hall is not worried about that. He is a businessman so he understands that there will always be competition in any business but I think what will separate Belingwe Hotel from the rest is that people already know the place and are always asking when it will reopen,” he said.
Belingwe Hotel Renovations
Hall said he is recuperating at home after a short stay in hospital and was not in a condition to sit down with Saturday Leisure for an interview.
The white elephant will soon be the place to be for the people of Mberengwa and anyone that needs a place to rest for the night in transit to wherever they are going. — @RaymondJaravaza
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