daniel chigunwe
Thupeyo Muleya
Beitbridge Bureau
THE stage is set for the second Beitbridge Business Expo and people’s choice awards to be held at the new Zebra Hilltop lodge, some 50 km west of the town tonight.
Organisers of the event are set to reward businesses, organisations and corporates which excelled last year in their sectors. The event will run under the theme, “Beitbridge 24 seven”.
The Beitbridge expo seeks to inculcate a culture of quality service delivery in the town by many service providers on a 24-hour basis and in the long run build a showground to match the town’s modernisation.
Beitbridge Business Expo chairperson and awards-winning businesswoman Dr Anna Muleya said they had covered all the ground and were ready to roll.
“The preparations are now at a very advanced stage. The adjudicators are almost done judging the companies and all the necessary logistics are in place,” she said.“As for the people’s choice, nominations are all done and the winners are already determined by the online system that we use. So basically we are ready.
“The theme this year remains Beitbridge 24 seven since we believe we haven’t achieved our target. The idea is to have services and facilities available for 24 hours a day considering that the border is open for 24 hours”.
Dr Muleya said in the long run, travellers passing through Beitbridge town should access all the facilities that they need including restaurants, fuel and many other services. The business group would keep working under the same theme until they reach a point where their vision bears fruit.
The awards are being held as a way of encouraging a culture of competition within the organisations in the town.
“When businesses and organisations compete, it means the standards of services rise. Ideally, it is good to have a day in the year where all the corporates and people in Beitbridge meet in one place in a glamorous situation, network and get to know each other better,” said Dr Muleya.
“The voting process for the people’s choice category is done via an online system and this is closed and done. Now the adjudicators are finalising the ones where they assess organisations and come up with results, so that process is already concluded”.
She said this year they will be awarding businesses under 36 categories which cover almost all organisations in the town. Dr Muleya said the response from the community and corporates had been great and there were many enquiries.
The community had voted in good numbers for most awards which required going through the online system.
“Our guest of honour this year will be the Zimborders Consortium chief executive officer Mr Francois Diedrechsen and we have invited a number of dignitaries to grace the event,” said Dr Muleya.“Beitbridge’s finest master of ceremony Sam (Sam Muleya) who is now based in Harare will host the event and there will be a number of entertainment activities supported by a band and many others.“From the last event we learnt a lot from the feedback that we got from the community and all the people who attended. We tried to incorporate as many of those suggestions as possible”. She said a number of corporations had come on board in terms of sponsoring the event and they were looking forward to having a memorable event. The Beitbridge Expo seeks to focus on recognising organisations including corporates, government agencies, non governmental organisations among other spheres.
Online Reporter