Minister in World Cup “Boob”

The Standard
By Ndamu Sandu
16 August 2009

ZIMBABWE’S bid to host visiting teams for the 2010 soccer World Cup went up in smoke after the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture said there were no funds to host the Cosafa tourney seen as a dress rehearsal for next year’s showcase.

In June, Zimbabwe won the right to host the Cosafa Cup after a successful bidding by the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry and the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) who want to use the October tourney to test the country’s preparedness for 2010 soccer showpiece.

But in a new twist of events, the Minister of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture, Senator David Coltart wrote to Cosafa last month saying the country has doubts of hosting the event due to limited funds.

In a July 24, 2009, letter to Cosafa chief operations officer, Sue Destombes, Coltart said the Sports and Recreation Commission mandated to authorise national and international sporting activities was concerned about the cost involved in hosting the tournament.

“I noted in this regard, at the press conference attended by yourself and my colleague Minister Mzembi (Walter), Zifa stated that they hope to receive a sponsorship package of approximately US$700 000, and in addition, the Zimbabwean government will have to provide accommodation, transport and food for the participating teams on top of the sponsorship,” Coltart said.

The venues, Coltart said, will have to be rehabilitated “to a certain extent to make them suitable to host such a prestigious tournament” which means an extra cost to the government.

He said the Commission estimates that the Zimbabwean government would have to raise in this regard an additional US$2 million.

“With this in mind, and bearing in mind the fact that my ministry has very limited resources, I have written to the Minister of Finance to ascertain whether he is prepared to allocate the figure of US$3 million to cover this tournament,” he said.

“If the Minister of Finance does not have sufficient resources to cover the tournament, then we will regrettably be forced to decline your kind invitation.”

Walter Mzembi, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister told Standardbusiness Zimbabwe desperately needs Cosafa to test the state of preparedness.

“Cosafa is the only practical dress rehearsal. Without Cosafa anything we present to the nation is theoretical,” he said adding that they will put the tournament for consideration by Cabinet.

Mzembi said ZTA, SRC and Zifa will have to sit down and put a budget to be presented to the Ministerial Economic Committee that does due diligence on behalf of Cabinet.

Mzembi said the October tourney would test the commitment of Zimbabwe and is a “mock exam on the country’s systems”.

“If we can’t host Zambia, Malawi and the rest of the 14 member countries how can we say we are ready to host Brazil and England,” he asked.

But players in the tourism industry said Coltart had jumped the gun without consulting with the sector. They say he had seen Cosafa as a sporting event not as an avenue to market the country as a tourist destination following years of an economic meltdown.

Karikoga Kaseke, ZTA chief executive officer told Standardbusiness Cosafa would hype interest for 2010 but Coltart’s letter shows that the country has no capacity to accommodate teams for next year’s soccer extravaganza.

“In essence he (Coltart) is saying we are not ready for 2010. If we can’t host Cosafa how can we host Brazil versus Argentina in a friendly match?”

The Cosafa bungling by Coltart is not the only thing the tourism industry has to contend with, Standardbusiness was told.

While world soccer governing body, Fifa’s accommodation company, MATCH has signed up for facilities in the region, it is still to agree with operators in Zimbabwe after they said MATCH’s conditions were harsh. In May, the country’s tourism players rejected as unsustainable a proposal by Fifa to reserve 80% of the rooms stock in Victoria Falls without immediate payment for next year’s World Cup.

Tourism players said they are prepared to offer 300 rooms constituting 20% of the entire room stock in Victoria Falls.

Investigations also revealed that players are still to enjoy the fiscal incentives offered to the industry early this year due to “too much paper work”. In March, government exempted from duty capital goods used by registered tourism players and equipment for expansion.

The suspension runs up to February 28, 2011.

Operators told Standardbusiness, the process is taking longer to implement and some players have resorted to paying out duty as they race against time to spruce up their images.

In addition, a number of safari operators are haggling with ZTA over levy on trophy fees and the matter is before the Supreme Court. While the two parties wait for the Supreme Court to settle the matter, it means that safari operators cannot enjoy the fiscal incentives because they are not registered with ZTA.

But there is a silver lining after all with the Brazilian Football Federation saying they could consider Zimbabwe as their training ground if they qualify for 2010.

Zimbabwe’s tourism industry, whose image has been battered for the past years because of lawlessness and economic meltdown, is picking up the pieces and is touted to provide the quickest turnaround ahead of sectors such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing in the new revival plan, Short Term Emergency Recovery Programme.