ZCC complex set to be tourism religious shrine

designated as a tou-rism religious shrine.
Recommendations to declare the towering church complex, which has the capacity to carry between 18 000 and 30 000 worshippers at any given time, have been forwarded to Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi for approval.
The church – officially opened by President Mugabe at a colourful ceremony witnessed by tens of thousands of the church’s faithful in April this year – is arguably the biggest in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority chief executive officer Mr Karikoga Kaseke yesterday said plans were already underway to make the ZCC church a tourism religious shrine.
He said the physical size of the church and its spiritual meaning made it an ideal facility to be declared a tourism religious shrine.
“We have already made recommendations to the Minister (Mzembi) for the ZCC church complex and conference centre at Mbungo estates to be made a tourism religious shrine.
“We came up with that idea after considering the fact that there is no other church in sub-Saharan Africa that is physically big as the Mbungo church.
“Moreover the ZCC church is bigger in terms of spirituality as tens of thousands of people regularly converge there to develop themselves spiritually,” said Mr Kaseke in an interview.
He added that they were now waiting for Minister Mzembi to give them the nod to make the ZCC church complex and conference centre a tourism religious centre.
“Once that is done we hope that both local and international religious tourists will flock to the complex just to see it and its enormous size and also to develop themselves spiritually,” he said.
Minister Mzembi yesterday confirmed the development and said the declaration of the ZCC church complex at Mbungo estates, as a tourism religious centre would be a positive development for Zimbabwe’s tourism.
“We are still working on the issue but its a positive development that will improve and add another dimension in Zimbabwe’s tourism.
“We would be able to have declared the ZCC church complex a tourism religious shrine before the church’s annual conference that is set for August and will be graced by thousands of foreign visitors,” said Minister Mzembi.
He said plans were already underway to install a public viewing centre at the church complex to enable some of the visitors who will not be able to be accommodated inside the church to view proceedings from outside.
This will not be the first time that a country would have used religious shrines as tourism spectacles as millions of tourists annually flock to the Vatican’s St Peter’s Basillica in Rome and Mecca in Saudi Arabia as pilgrims thereby benefitting those countries as religious tourists.