By Ruth Butaumocho and Lloyd Gumbo
Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive Mr Karikoga Kaseke and his boss – Tourism and Hospitality Minister Walter Mzembi – have clashed over the former’s decision to dethrone Miss Zimbabwe Personality Lungile Mathe.
Mr Kaseke last month dethroned the model for her “unbecoming behaviour that was threatening the integrity of ZTA”. However, Minister Mzembi overturned the decision, saying he had received complaints from some stakeholders arguing that the dethronement had not been handled properly.
The minister appointed a gender-sensitive committee of four women and selected members of the ZTA board to look into the case. In an interview from South Africa yesterday, Mr Kaseke said he would quit should Mathe be reinstated. “If she comes back, I am out of ZTA.”
Mr Kaseke said although the Tourism Ministry was ZTA’s parent ministry, it had no mandate to make such a drastic decision. “Miss Tourism Zimbabwe is entirely a ZTA project and the ministry has got no mandate to overrule decisions that we make, but they can only advise us.
“In any case, I am surprised by what the minister said in The Chronicle about ZTA. I know him so well, he is my minister (Mzembi), he is not capable of saying what was written in the newspaper,” he said in reference to Minister Mzembi’s comment that he had received complaints over the decision taken by Mr Kaseke to dethrone Mathe.
On Thursday, Minister Mzembi insisted the statement he issued recently nullifying the dethronement of Miss Mathe stands.
“We are finished with that issue. My ministry gave a statement which still stands. We stand by the official position of the ministry and no event has overtaken the statement,” Minister Mzembi said. He added that the board he appointed to look into the case was still to give him feedback.
“ZTA is a subordinate of the ministry and the ministry has taken a position. I am wiser, I can’t engage my CEO (Mr Kaseke) in the press,” Minister Mzembi said.
In an interview with The Chronicle last weekend Minister Mzembi said the verdict on Miss Mathe’s case would be out once she was back from South Africa.
“The hearing on Mathe’s matter was held on Monday and all the issues were discussed, but at the moment we are waiting for her to come back,” he said. However, Mr Kaseke said there was nothing to consider and investigate over Miss Mathe’s issue, saying as far as he was concerned, the dethronement was final.
He professed ignorance of the meeting that Minister Mzembi claimed to have had with some members of ZTA, saying he was never part of it. Mr Kaseke, however, reiterated that no amount of persuasion, harassment and outcries would change the authority’s decision.
He said the decision was reached after several consultations and meetings regarding “her unbecoming behaviour, which was threatening the integrity of ZTA”. Mr Kaseke dismissed media reports that claimed that Miss Mathe’s case was never investigated. He said her dethronement was done after three consecutive meetings held with ZTA members among them, officials.
Mrs Anna Moyo and Miss Mathe’s chaperon, Ms Sarah Mpofu-Sibanda. The meeting failed to yield results.
“During the three meetings that were held, she was strongly cautioned over her unbecoming behaviour of patronising nightclubs and failing to turn up for work on several occasions. She did not change her behaviour, which contravened the code of conduct for all models under ZTA.
“We could not just sit and watch, while she continued to bring the name of the organisation into disrepute. She just had to go,” said Mr Kaseke. He said that it would be folly for his parent ministry to nullify a decision that his organisation took in the best interest of the models and the country.
Mr Kaseke expressed his disappointment at the manner at which Miss Mathe’s issue had attracted so much public sympathy and “yet the girl was very notorious and had dismally failed to represent other models”.
“The girl is even behaving like a heroine despite her mischievous behaviour that left us with no choice but to dethrone her. She is not the first one to be dethroned and will not be the last. In the history of the pageant, we have dethroned three girls, what is the fuss about this one?
“Why are people falling for cheap lies? I am actually shocked to hear people saying her dethronement will tarnish the image of the country. What could be more damaging than having a girl of loose morals, parading herself as a national model in nightclubs and bars?” Mr Kaseke queried. The Herald
