ZTA descends on lodges

Leonard Ncube in Victoria Falls
THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and Victoria Falls Municipality have launched a crackdown on unregistered lodges in the resort town, threatening to close unlicensed ones.

Sweet Homes Lodge has since been closed in the crackdown after ZTA cancelled its operating licence following a case where its owner Mr Garikayi Mushambavanhu allegedly fleeced dozens of tourists of huge sums of money in different currencies by booking them into non-existent rooms.

The victims are from South Africa and Botswana as well as locals who had visited the resort town for the recently held Victoria Falls Carnival.

Mr Mushambavanhu has since appeared in court facing fraud charges and will be put to his defence on Tuesday next week.

His wife escaped the country to Botswana where she is allegedly hiding as she feared arrest.

Mr Mushambavanhu (43) of number 686 Syringa Road, Victoria Falls, who said in court that he owned more than 20 houses in the resort town, allegedly booked six families each with between six and 13 members in the same rooms during the festive season.

He allegedly advertised Sweet Homes Lodge and collected money from accommodation seekers knowing there were no vacant rooms.

The issue came to light when six families clashed at one of the properties where some were made to sleep on the floor, others in bathrooms.

This prompted ZTA and the council to descend on unregistered operators.

It has also emerged that Mr Mushambavanhu allegedly operates a bogus real estate agency while also claiming to be a registered lawyer as well as demanding rentals in United States dollars and either evicting or harassing those who fail to pay.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Mr Munesu Munodawafa confirmed that a crackdown had been launched on bogus operators and the closure of the lodge.

“The Government’s position on registration of operators is very clear. Everybody should be registered and should comply.

“We had isolated situations around the Victoria Falls Carnival period where some people were masquerading as licensed players,” he said.

Mr Munodawafa said the Government was not taking the issue lightly because it destroys the image of the country which the new dispensation was rebuilding through international community re-engagement.

The Permanent Secretary appealed to tourism players and citizens to inform authorities if they suspect that anyone was operating illegally.

Victoria Falls councillors debated on the issue during a full council meeting last week and urged management to partner ZTA in identifying and dealing with all structures that operate as lodges without approval.

“We had a meeting with ZTA and we will be working together to identify illegal structures,” said the Mayor Somvelo Dlamini.

Town Clerk Mr Ronnie Dube said both council and Government were losing significant amounts of revenue to illegal operators.

He said bogus operators would have been allocated ordinary housing stands and later converted the houses into lodges without knowledge of authorities.

This comes at a time when Victoria Falls has an accommodation deficit of more than 2 500 prompting private house owners to turn their premises into lodges when demand is high.

“Ideally, such plans wouldn’t have been approved because there are certain obligations to meet and converting a house into a lodge is a process that has a council resolution.

“We’re therefore doing an assessment and following up on all reported cases as it’s in our interest because if one operates commercially on a private house they have to be charged commercial rates.

“The current situation is unfair to us and properly registered businesses that pay high rates,” said Mr Dube.

He said illegally converting houses into lodges also creates an artificial housing backlog in the resort town.

— @ncubeleon.