The Sunday News
Vusumuzi Dube and Charity Chikara
APRIL will go down as the super month and one of the most productive for Bulawayo, as the city is set to host major national and economic events that are set to transform the economic landscape of the city.
Next week, the city will host the first-ever independence celebrations outside Harare since 1980, which will culminate in the main celebrations that will be held at Barbourfields Stadium.
A week later, the city will cap the month with the country’s biggest trading event, the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), where officials have already indicated that the response has been overwhelming.
Before the major economic and national events, the city like the rest of the world, will experience a holy blessing when various churches gather for the Easter holidays that start on Friday.
Officials said they were ready to ensure that the three major events that Bulawayo will host this month will leave a lasting impressing on the city. The Bulawayo City Council said it has budgeted US$1 million towards sprucing up the city and the hosting of the main Independence Day celebrations.
“Council and the Government through the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs, the Secretary for Provincial Affairs and Devolution have been preparing for the celebrations through the interdepartmental committee and provincial preparatory committee.
The city of Bulawayo interdepartmental committee has outlined the activities that need to be attended to, towards the successful hosting of the celebrations. A budget has been drawn up of US$1 028 714 to facilitate the titivation of the city in preparation for the Independence Day celebrations. These funds were not budgeted for as there was no anticipation that the city will play host to the celebrations. There will be need for the virementation of finance from funded budget lines,” reads a council report.
Commenting on the city preparedness to hosting the two national events, the city’s mayor, Councillor Solomon Mguni, said as a city they were excited to be the first city outside Harare to play host to the celebrations, that will also see the President hosting the Children’s Party on 17 April.
“Remember this is the first time in 42 years that Bulawayo is hosting the country’s independence celebrations. We feel honoured as a city and this event like any other state occasion that has been hosted in the city before always creates a hive of activities that speak to the growth of our gross domestic product.
We don’t have the funding as of now, but council has worked out a budget of just over US$1 million for the purposes of expenditure to be incurred on the independence preparations which funding must go towards titivating the city.
Since this is a State occasion, council in its last sitting directed the town clerk, Mr Christopher Dube, to present this budget to Government,” said Clr Mguni.
He said what excited them was that the city’s domestic and international tourism was set for a major boost this month.
“Our hotels are already filling up. This will obviously have a net effect on our arts, heritage and culture consumption by visitors. We however, still need to work on our roads, public lighting and general outlook of the city.
Otherwise, we are aware that there is an inter-Ministerial committee working on the preparedness of Bulawayo to host the Independence Day celebrations in Bulawayo. As a city, we will be working with them to complement their efforts. The city has already handed over some facilities like Barbourfields Stadium for the independence celebrations,” he said.
Officials at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair Company also said they were experiencing “nice life problems” due to a large number of companies that are registering to take part at this year’s event.
The country’s prime trade showcase, will run from 26 to 30 April under the theme: “Rethink, Reimagine, and Reinvent Value Chains for Economic Development.”
Kenyan President, Uhuru Kenyatta will be the guest of honour at the official opening ceremony scheduled for 29 April.
ZITF Company chief executive officer Dr Nicholas Ndebele last week said they had received an overwhelming number from exhibitors.
“We are grateful and excited by the pace of preparations towards ZITF 2022 and in particular the manner in which the market has favourably responded to our call for re-invented and re-imagined exhibition. So far in terms of numbers we are at 471, and we are experiencing a likely overflow of 128 exhibitors whom we are still trying to find space for,” he said.
He added that the private sector was expressing interest in this year’s show, showcasing their readiness to shake off the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Industry has realized that there is need to coexist with Covid-19. There is a better understanding of the pandemic in terms of how it is controlled and how it has evolved over time. That to us also explains why there is a strong demand from the private sector to participate in this year’s show. In fact we are still recording a lot of interest from the private sector and for us it is a good problem, an interesting problem to accommodate such an overflow,” he said.
Another highlight at the ZITF is the ‘Connect Africa Symposium’ scheduled for 28 April, where President Mnangagwa will deliver the keynote address. Mayor Clr Mguni chipped in and said what excited them was that the city was in advanced stages of talks of twining with the Kenyan county of Mombasa.
“This year the ZITF will be officially opened by His Excellency, Uhuru Kenyatta, President of the Republic of Kenya. This we understand will coincide with his state visit to Zimbabwe. Last week, I met Her Excellency, Mrs Stella Munyi, the Ambassador of Kenya to Zimbabwe.
“The City of Bulawayo has expressed its desire to twin with the County of Mombasa in which Mombasa City is located. We now have secured a resolution from council to start negotiations through our Ministry of Local Government and Public Works.
Obviously we also need to play our part. And as a gesture of good will, we want President Kenyatta’s visit to Bulawayo to leave an indelible mark on the city and its people,” said Clr Mguni.
The mayor said to solidify the city’s excitement, they have since acceded to a request to rename one of the city’s streets in honour of Cde Kenyatta, an occasion which will also coincide with his visit to Bulawayo.
“You will remember that the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo and the late first Kenyan President, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta were friends. We want that friendship to be extended to the people of Mombasa and Bulawayo. Mombasa is a key city for us as Bulawayo because it is also a twin city with Ethekwini Municipality (Durban) in South Africa, which is also our twin city.
“Mombasa is one of the largest sea ports in East Africa and an industrial hub. We believe that our business people in Bulawayo will benefit from such synergies. Remember the world is now a global village. Council has therefore acceded to the request to name Third Street in Suburbs (Park Road to Ascot Way interchange) in honour of President Kenyatta,” said Clr Mguni.
Meanwhile, police said they have already started deploying officers so as to weed out any criminal elements that would want to spoil the festivities. Bulawayo police spokesperson, Inspector Abednico Ncube said police has already increased deployments in the city ahead of the hosting of the events.
“As police we are ready and have already added manpower to see the smooth running of these major events. We have also geared up our tactics, which has already started yielding results as last (Friday) night we arrested three copper thieves and one individual who has been on our wanted list for instigating a number of machete attacks.
We have further enlisted all our departments to be on high alert, including the CID homicide and law and order officers.
Further, I must warn the public that a majority of our officers will be in plain clothes hence we are pushing that for every 10 people there will be a plain clothes officer in the vicinity,” said Insp Ncube.
He assured all visitors to the city of safety.
“To all our visitors we wish them a safe stay and assure them not to panic as they will be in the good hands of the police and the community that has been quite cooperative in terms of working with law enforcement officers,” said Insp Ncube.
