INFORMATION,Publicity and Broadcasting Services Minister Monica Mutsvangwa has urged tourists and locals to ignore last week’s events, adding that their security is guaranteed.
Zimbabwe was last week engulfed by violent protests which were triggered by the government’s decision to increase fuel prices at a time when people are facing a lot of challenges economically.
The protests however ended up forcing business to close down for almost a week before the security forces came in to calm the situation.
However, speaking at the launch of the Tour Africa-New Horizon Project in Harare, Minister Mutsvangwa said the peace that prevails in Zimbabwe will always prevails and people have nothing to fear.
“The events of last week let them not mar the progress, the economic reforms, and the work which the Second Republic is doing to make sure that Zimbabwe becomes a great country again.
“All-weather friends like China are here to demonstrate their confidence in this country, as a government we continue to assure everyone, our people, our tourists, our investors and our guests in the country that the peace which always prevails in this country will always prevail and your security is guaranteed in this country.
“…Let me say to all of you, Zimbabwe is a beautiful country, our people are known globally for being peace loving and what we saw last week is not Zimbabwean.
“And we call upon all of us to think deep and say no, we don’t want violence in our country, we cannot allow the planting of a seed of violence among our children because that has never been our culture.
“We value peace, and we are known for that and we continue to make sure as a government that peace prevails,” she said.
Speaking at the same occasion, acting Chinese Ambassador to Zimbabwe Mr Zhao Baogang said every country has its own problems and that dialogue is the best way to find the needed solution and that the coming of a Chinese delegation is a sign of confidence.
“This is a very important visit by the Chinese delegation it shows that Chinese government, Chinese people and the Chinese community have strong confidence in Zimbabwe.
“For the time being I believe that confidence is more precious than gold, every country has its own problems but we must work hard to try and find solutions, strikes and vandalism will not create any solutions only dialogue and hard efforts will bring new life, new future, bright future to all of us.
“And we have strong confidence in the leadership of the new government, I sincerely hope that you can work hard and stabilise the situation and then we can have a prosperous 2019,” he said.
Meanwhile, Minister Mutsvangwa has applauded the Environment and Tourism Ministry and its stakeholders for the wonderful work they are doing in marketing the country, making reference to the various international recognitions that Zimbabwe has received.
“Minister of Environment you are doing a wonderful job, we have seen Zimbabwe being recognised as the best tourist destination in the world this shows with those in the tourism industry you are doing a wonderful job and together we will be able to rebrand our beautiful country.
She said “there is no reason why tourist shouldn’t boost between Zimbabwe and China which has 1.3 billion people and also most 20 percent of that population being multi-millionaires if not billionaires.
“With a good relationship between the two countries and Zimbabwe which offers beautiful sceneries, peace loving people there is no reason why there wouldn’t be a boost in tourism between the two countries,” she said.
The Information Minister added that she once stayed in China for about five years and is aware that Chinese people have confidence in Zimbabwe adding that there is only need for promotion and awareness activities.
“…I must say the Chinese people have a lot of trust and confidence in Africa and more so in Zimbabwe. I continue to visit China every opportunity I get and everyone is anxious to know more about the Victoria Falls, about our Hwange, about our Great Zimbabwe, about our people, about our culture and rightly so we need to promote cultural exchanges between our two countries,” she said.
