Will Walter Mzembi win UNWTO contest?

By Shame Makoshori

In February 2009, I had the privilege to interview Zimbabwe’s newly appointed Hospitality and Tourism Industry Minister, Walter Mzembi.

It was a fine sunny morning. The winds of change were blowing across Harare following a political settlement that was beginning to reshape the economy.

The minister was about to start building the blocks on which tourism recovery would ride.

The Government of National Unity between President Robert Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF and opposition parties had just been assembled.

In Mzembi’s office, the landline on his desk buzzed continuously; Zimbabweans were phoning to congratulate him for the appointment.

Foreign and local journalists also took turns to interview the man who had suddenly been thrown into public limelight by his appointment to a key portfolio.

And hearing him field questions from journalists, I became convinced that Mzembi was full of great ideas; he was an ambitious man with the zeal to change things.

As I left his office that morning, I had no doubt that the new minister was the right candidate to take up the role of repairing the industry.

I did not meet Mzembi until August 2010 when he invited me to Tourism House to express his concern over a story that raised conflict of interest issues in the manner he had handled logistical arrangements during a friendly match between Zimbabwe and Brazil that June.

It was his ownership of Munandi Travel and Tours, which clinched the tender to transport the Samba Boys, which caused ructions within the hospitality sector.

We were seeking answers over this clear act of bad corporate governance. Mzembi suppressed his anger in the tension filled room.

But after a few minutes, we struck common ground.

His parting words were: “We must treat each other fairly. One day we will meet again in various capacities in life.”

Mzembi has now taken a bold decision to take on the world’s best in the race to lead the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO). The build-up to the race started as soon as he landed the ministerial portfolio.

In 2012, Mzembi successfully campaigned for Zimbabwe to host the African Travel Association (ATA) annual general meeting in Victoria Falls.

He then used ATA to assess if Zimbabwe had the pedigree to host the much bigger UNWTO annual general assembly (AGA), which was coming in 2013.

But already, he had been quick to realise how onerous the task would be, and had roped the Zambians to mount a joint bid for the global summit, which could only come to Zimbabwe 300 years later if no changes were made to the bidding process.

Tarib Rifai, the current UNWTO secretary general, remarked that the 2013 AGA was the best in recent years.

He showered the Zimbabwean minister with praise, which gave Mzembi the confidence that he required to spring onto the global tourism scene.

After the UNWTO AGA, Mzembi started laying the groundwork for the top job in tourism through his work in Zimbabwe and Africa.

He attracted regional attention by launching the National Tourism Policy (NTP) in July 2014 when he promised to lift hundreds of families out of poverty and create 100 000 jobs by 2015.

Through the blueprint that heavily leaned towards attracting tourists from Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, the so-called BRICS economies, Mzembi projected that staff complement in the sector would reach 400 000 in 2015, from 300 000, a huge positive surge.

If this happened, the benefits would cascade to at least 500 000 more people.
Mzembi was instrumental in the refurbishment of the US$150 million Victoria Falls International Airport.

His push for the introduction of a Univisa system in southern Africa has started to bear fruit.

Whether the NTP has been a success or failure remains a subject of debate.

But what has been clear is that his public relations skills have combined with his reforms to catapult him into the battle to take over the UNWTO secretary general’s post when the Jordanian, Rifai’s term expires this May.

A Google search on the UNWTO race turns up more stories on Mzembi than his competitors.

It demonstrates that the African Union (AU)’s choice for the big job has been on a global offensive much longer than his rivals.

These are Lahcen Haddad, the Tourism Minister of Morocco; Allain St Ange, Seychelles’s Tourism Minister; the heavy weight Mexican tourism executive, Gloria Guevara; Marcio Favilla Luca de Paula, a high ranking Brazilian authority in global tourism; and Zurab Pololikashvili, a Georgian diplomat.

The noise portraying Mzembi as a tourism star has had the effect of swamping his failures as well.

A fresh crisis has hit the country’s tourism industry, which had appeared to stabilise after the 2009 political pact.
The boat cruising sector slipped into a comma, and has remained paralysed.
The outlook points to a far more devastating crisis exposed by last year’s closure of key hotels.

In one drama filled week, Zimbabwe witnessed the closure of United Touring Company, after battling to navigate the country’s harsh economic terrain.

Also at the centre of the crisis is Mzembi’s failure to stop government from imposing a new tax on foreign tourists, which has affected viability.

Despite public protestations against the tax, Mzembi failed to convince Cabinet colleagues against the punitive levy.

At least two major hotels closed last year in Beitbridge, the Rainbow Beibridge Hotel and another unit which used to be run by the African Sun Limited.

Mzembi has presided over a graveyard of closures and wind downs.

Poaching has risen since the time he hosted the UNWTO, but many argue this portfolio does not fall under his purview, as it is under the Minister of Environment and Climate, Oppah Muchinguri.

Zimbabwe lost about 24 000 elephants to poachers over the past 20 years, prejudicing the hard currency starved economy of an estimated US$3 billion from sport hunting fees alone.

The magnificent Chinhoyi Caves has been stripped of its prestigious position in the league of world heritage attractions rated by the United Nations (UN).

Despite all these factors, others say Mzembi remains the best candidate.

“Walter is a calm and collected politician whose greatest strengths are a combination of sound intellectual gravitas and a stout persona filled with public diplomacy and charisma, traits that are key in navigating past the dicey waters of international electoral politics,” said media analyst Henry Makowa.

“His victory will embolden the global status of Zimbabwe; indeed boost and trigger tourism to Zimbabwe, as the country will once again go on the world stage for its uniqueness in producing great human resource talent. That he faces opposition from different candidates from advanced economies is neither here nor there for winning in politics is the art of polishing your brains than the figures in your bank account,” he added.

This could be true.

But the global political terrain could be tricky for a candidate like Mzembi.

Who eventually occupies these key elected global positions is usually determined by their country of origin.

Is Zimbabwe seen as a case study for good governance and public administration in the eyes of the world? Is she viewed as a pariah State? Does Zimbabwe pay its debts?

What are her relationships with the UN itself, the International Monetary Fund, and World Bank and the Paris Club for instance?

The UNWTO is an agency of the UN, which is largely funded by the United States of America (USA).

What is the relationship between Zimbabwe and the USA?

Zimbabwe is under US sanctions, principally through the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, which makes it unlikely that its candidate would garner support from Washington.

And by extension, it means no support could be forthcoming from the United Kingdom and its vast network of allies.

Mzembi knows this too well.

The issue of Zimbabwe’s poor relations with Washington was the reason why he was blocked from meeting with President Obama when he joined former Prime Minister, Morgan Tsvangirai on a global offensive to drum up foreign direct investment in 2009.

It has been difficult for Zimbabwean nationals to win elected positions in African and global bodies.

The examples include Bernard Chidzero to the United Nations in the 1990s, Simba Makoni to the presidency of the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2006 and Thomas Sakala’s failure to land the same position last year.

Even after the AU’s endorsement, Mzembi still has work to do.

The Indian Ocean Vanilla Islands, comprising Mauritius, Reunion, Madagascar, Comoros, Maldives, Mayotte and Seychelles, have been trying to throw spanners on his path.

“The islands have always said that the position of UNWTO general secretary after Taleb Rifai is for a unifier and one the world at large will accept. Can Zimbabwe today be seen as a country set to unify the world of tourism through their emissary, the current Minister of Tourism?” the islands queried.

Seychelles’ Tourism Minister, Allain St Ange, subsequently entered the race, even after the AU had endorsed Mzembi as the African candidate.

The vastly experienced Moroccan Minister of Tourism, Lahcen Haddad, has also entered the race.

St Ange is in with a big chance.

In 2013, Seychelles President James Michel appointed him Minister of Tourism & Culture, moving offices from the Seychelles Tourism Board.

Before that, he was a private-sector tourism personality whose profile included running accommodation establishments in his country, the Channel Islands in the UK, and in Australia.

He also did Hotel Management Studies in Germany and Tourism Studies in France and he has been extremely active within the UNWTO.

Then there is the big Mexican tourism executive, Gloria Guevara.

She was a business executive who began her professional career at NCR Corporation in 1989 and worked in the IT industry in various roles in North America, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa regions.

Barring politics, she is a frontrunner.

She has been in the tourism industry since 1995 and holds a BSc. in Computer Science from Anahuac University and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Business at Northwestern University.

In March 2010, President Calderon appointed Gloria as the secretary of tourism, a Cabinet position that leads a sector that contributes nine percent to Mexico’s gross domestic product, employs 2,5 million people directly and five million indirectly, according to Mexico’s National Institute of Statistics and Geography.

The other candidate, Marcio Favilla de Paulo has been executive director for operational programmes and institutional relations at UNWTO based in Madrid, Spain.

Between January 2010 and December 2013, he held the position of UNWTO executive director for competitiveness, external relations, and partnerships.

He holds an MA in Development Studies from the Institute of Social Studies in The Hague, Netherlands, where he specialised in regional development planning.

It will not be a walk in the park for Mzembi, come May.

The road ahead would be difficult, filled with the hurdles of global politics, perception on Zimbabwe by key countries and many other issues. Financial Gazette