By Daniel Chigundu
ZIMBABWE Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive Dr Karikoga Kaseke says the Ashanti King from Ghana Asantehene Otumfuo Osei Tutu II is coming for the 5th edition of Harare International Carnival.
Born on May 6, 1950, the Asantehene is the 16th Asantehene, the traditional rule of the kingdom of Ashanti in Ghana since April 26, 1999.
He was once judged to be the fifth richest king in Africa by Forbes and said to be worth about US$10 million. His source of wealth is from mining equipment, property and jewellery.
Addressing Harare International Carnival stakeholders, Dr Kaseke said he invited the Ashanti King when he went to Ghana a few weeks ago.
“I have been to Ghana and I have invited the King of Ashanti, those of you who have read African history and those who know the King of Ashanti, that is the most powerful kingdom in Africa and I mean it.
“Why are they powerful it’s because they have their own money, they have the gold I don’t know their government system but they don’t need money from the government to pay for the kingdom they pay for themselves.
“And I want them to come here and share with us the history and heritage that I saw in Ghana, so we are bringing them, they were Seychelles last year and so they had to hire a plane for the king and his entourage to go to the carnival, we can’t do that we can bring at least 20 people to pay for their tickets,” he said.
Dr Kaseke added that those who want to see a kingdom and what it does should come to the carnival and his Ashanti king.
“So basically what we are simply saying is that the king of Ashanti is coming if you have never seen a kingdom and what it does you will see it its very amazing,” he said.
The ZTA boss said this year’s edition of the carnival is going to be better than the 2017 carnival which reportedly attracted about 1.5 million people.
Meanwhile, ZTA has said future editions of the carnival will likely attract foreign attendance as they plan to advertise the event on various international media platforms.
“There will be a lot of people coming for our carnival because they know there is a carnival, we are going to publicise it in the international media and other international channels and you will see how many people will come for our carnival, we know what we are doing.
“So we are simply saying a lot of people are coming but this year let me be honest with you we are bringing in Cubans and Cubans we want to bring them here for the first time, we paid for their tickets we don’t want to hide that,” he said.