The Effect of Xenophobia On Tourism: Minister Walter Mzembi’s Interview On The Platform With Ruvhi Pari

Minister of Tourism, engineer Walter Mzembi was last week’s guest on Ruvhi Pari talk show, “The Platform” to talk about how xenophobia has affected Zimbabwean tourism and Africa at large.

Here are ten things we learnt about where our tourism stands after the xenophobia attacks in South Africa from the Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi.

1. Minister Mzembi says he has adopted the xerophobia which is a term that means to show zero tolerance to xenophobia.

2. Minister Mzembi doesn’t believe xenophobia in South Africa can be considered genocide as Professor Moyo calls it, he says the attacks were not planned or organized enough to lead to a genocide.

3. “Xenophobia happened simply because of ignorance and thuggish response due to poverty and unemployment in South Africa”, Minister Mzembi said.

4. The Minister said xenophobia is thoroughly destructive to tourism because it shows there’s intense fear and dislike of foreign people, their custom and culture and tourism means inviting foreigners to enjoy your hospitality in your country.

5. He said Africans, especially South Africans by nature and ideology are not naturally xenophobic, their whole enduring philosophy of umuntu is extremely tolerant of the other.

6. The dislike of fellow Africans by South Africans is born out of misconstruction of what has caused miserable situation they find themselves in.

7. Minister Mzembi said South Africa’s manifest of xenophobia is not helping the African dream to push tourism to double digit market share of global tourism performance which is currently sitting on 4% market share.

8. “South Africa needs us more than we need them, we need to isolate the challenge to where it comes from, if we don’t then they will make collateral damage on African tourism”, he said.

9. The Minister said if people still wants him, he still has big dreams and developmental agendas in tourism to fulfill.

10 The Minister said being one of the youngest Ministers in Zimbabwe is a privilege because it’s like “drinking from Jacob’s well”.