The Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Barbara Rwodzi, has come under fire after controversially shifting the upcoming 18th edition of the Sanganai/Hlanganani World Tourism Expo from Bulawayo to Mutare, a move that has more than doubled hosting costs and sparked allegations of rent-seeking and self-enrichment.
The expo, scheduled for September 10–12, has traditionally been held in Bulawayo, where the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF) grounds provide established infrastructure at a cost of about US$500,000–700,000. This year, however, the event is set for Mutare, where makeshift facilities are being constructed at the Mutare Country Club and CBD, pushing costs into the millions.
Senior government and tourism sources allege that Rwodzi has been overstepping her mandate by interfering with the day-to-day operations of the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA), the statutory body established under the Tourism Act (Chapter 14:20) to promote, regulate, and develop Zimbabwe’s tourism sector.
“ZTA is supposed to run the event, but the minister is now not only influencing decisions, she has virtually taken over operations, including managing the Zimbabwe Tourism Fund, which is illegal,” said one source.
Officials accuse Rwodzi and her allies of deliberately moving the event to Mutare to create lucrative procurement, supply, and infrastructure contracts for themselves and connected businesses.
“Moving the expo to Mutare does not add value; it only increases costs. This is about money and personal enrichment, not tourism development,” another source said.
To prepare Mutare for the expo, a ZTA procurement and logistics team was reportedly dispatched to China in July to purchase containers, tents, chairs, and other equipment to construct temporary facilities.
Hosting an international expo of this scale requires extensive infrastructure, including exhibition halls, meeting rooms, catering, reliable internet, sanitation, security, and accommodation for more than 300 exhibitors.
“This is going to cost millions. Officials are downplaying the figures, but the real beneficiaries will be ministry insiders and their cronies,” a tourism ministry official said.
The move comes shortly after the launch of the National Tourism and Hospitality Policy (2025–2030), which aims to grow the sector into a US$10 billion industry by 2030. Critics say the policy has effectively given Rwodzi sweeping powers to dictate tourism development, further sidelining the ZTA.
The expo, formerly known as the Zimbabwe International Travel Expo (Shanyai/Vakatshani), was launched in 2008 and initially hosted in Harare before being moved to Bulawayo in 2015. The relocation to Bulawayo was justified at the time on the basis of cost efficiency and infrastructure readiness at ZITF.
“Bulawayo was the logical host because everything was already in place. The current move to Mutare is political, not economic. Officials were not ‘eating’ in Bulawayo, so they shifted it,” another source said.
Efforts to obtain comment from Minister Rwodzi were unsuccessful by the time of publication.
Another source said the move was a rehearsal of the forthcoming Zanu PF national conference scheduled for 13 to 18 October at Mutare Poly where the party will benefit from tourism expo’s facilities left behind.
“The infrastructure that will be used for the tourism expo will also be used by Zanu PF during the conference in October hence the party will not incur much costs and hassles preparing for their annual jamboree, they are killing two birds with one stone using state resources as usual/
“There is no way they will dismantle the structures that would have been set up for the tourism expo and erect new ones, they will simply continue from there,” she said on condition of anonymity as she works for the government. online
