admin
Flora Fadzai Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter
ZIMPAPERS’ Beitbridge-based senior reporter, Thupeyo Muleya scooped the best journalist of the year 2022 award during the 4th edition of the Sundrive Coalition organised Beitbridge Business Summit and Awards ceremony held at the weekend.
The one-day business summit held under the theme “Market Place # Creating Opportunities was aimed at promoting investment and economic growth in the border town in line with its thrust of transforming into a medium city.
Muleya bagged the Journalist of the Year accolade during the glitz and glamour event whose guest of honour was the Minister of Transport Infrastructural Development Felix Mhona.
The business summit ran with the presentation of awards to the Top 20 most influential people in Beitbridge, iconic personal awards and business resilience category. The community of Beitbridge nominated people for each category.
Categories included ground breaking award, innovation, growth and expansion, corporate social responsibility, special award and business excellence awards among others.
The summit, which was being held for the fourth year running seeks to promote entrepreneurship among the youth and indigenous business people from the border town.
In an interview with Mr Muleya said his nomination is a reflection of trust bestowed on him by the local community.
“It humbles me that people recognise me and my contribution to the economic growth of Beitbridge. It also shows that people have confidence and trust in my work and I am thankful to my Zimpapers colleagues for the support and teamwork,” he said.
The organiser of the event and Sundrive Coalition director, Mr Innocent Chenjerai said Muleya got the award based on the good work that he is doing in terms of writing stories that have a positive impact on Beitbridge.
Mr Chenjerai said he is optimistic that next year’s summit will be bigger and even better.
“We saw an increase in the number of people who came to this summit. We hope to get more support especially from the Government so that such events are a success,” he said.
Beitbridge is one of the fastest-growing towns in the country with a lot of economic development opportunities due to its location and proximity to Sadc’s economic powerhouse, South Africa.
Some of the investment opportunities include agro-based industries, canning, tannery, manufacturing, transport and logistics, ICT, tourism and culture, health, mining, education, accommodation and recreation, and dry ports.
Others are bonded warehouses, oil processing, glass manufacturing, citrus production, and value addition of related products, shipping and forwarding, and airport among others.
In addition, the local municipality has since availed 248 hectares of land to be exploited through the Special Economic Zones facility.
Online Reporter