Former tourism minister Dr. Walter Mzembi not guilty in a UNWTO General Assembly-related crime hunt in Zimbabwe

Former tourism minister Dr. Walter Mzembi not guilty in a UNWTO General Assembly-related crime hunt in Zimbabwe
Former tourism minister Dr. Walter Mzembi not guilty in a UNWTO General Assembly-related crime hunt in Zimbabwe
Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Dr. Walter Mzembi was one of the longest-serving tourism ministers in the world. He also served as the foreign minister in Zimbabwe. He was accused of corruption on false charges related to a UNWTO General Assembly in Zimbabwe – Zambia. He is now cleared of any wrongdoing.

  1. Forced into exile for 3 years, former tourism minister Dr. Walter Mzembi from Zimbabwe was cleared of all charges in a Zimbabwe High Court.
  2. This is a great day for justice and once more also exposes the questionable election process at the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), that put Zurab Pololikashvili in power.
  3. Mzembi has been instrumental behind the scenes in the current COVID-19 discussion. Clearing his name may give Dr. Mzembi the opportunity to add his experience to the future of the travel and tourism industry or perhaps to his beloved country, Zimbabwe.

Dr. Mzembi has always been accepted and admired among his peers from around the globe. He was seen traveling the world and speaking at many important events during his term as a minister.

Out of the public eye, his friends told him may times that he was one of the best tourism ministers in the world but unfortunately from the “wrong” country.

Dr. Mzembi is a global man. He was second as a candidate as Secretary-General of the World Tourism Organization in 2017. He fought for this post and gave it his all and more – he actually ended up giving up his freedom.

He understood the manipulation of the current Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili to win the election. Against all odds, Mzembi won the UNWTO election in second place. Mzembi fought until the end and called Zurab’s activities by its true name – fraud.

He gave in to Zurab at the General Assembly in Chengdu, China, with promises that if he withdraws his objection he would be put in charge of a committee assigned to change the election system at UNWTO. It never happened, because Mzembi’s government was taken over in a military operation.

Instead of receiving a patriotic homecoming, Mzembi was accused of criminal activities relating to his role as the host for the UNWTO General Assembly in 2013 in Zambia and Zimbabwe.

How this happened, and how this may have related to the 2017 UNWTO election when Mzembi was competing with the current UNWTO Secretary-General has never been clearly made public and is full of rumors.

The 57-year-old, who now lives in South Africa, was arrested after the late President Robert Mugabe was deposed in a military coup in November 2017.

Now 4 years after the overturn of Mzembi’s government, he has finally been cleared in Zimbabwe by the High Court indicating former tourism minister Walter Mzembiโ€™s hands โ€œremain as white as snow.โ€ He was cleared of all corruption allegations.

Prosecutors charged him and four others including the then tourism secretary Magret Mukahanana Sangarwe of converting to their own use four Ford Ranger vehicles bought for use in the planning and during the United Nations World Tourism Organization conference hosted by Zimbabwe in 2013.

Subsequently, Prosecutor General Kumbirai Hodzi filed a High Court application seeking the forfeiture of the vehicles which he said should have been handed over to the tourism ministry at the end of the UNWTO conference.

But Justice David Mangota of the Harare High Court, in a judgement made available this week, ruled that the Prosecutor General had no reasonable interest in the vehicles which were โ€œnever the property of governmentโ€ and were in fact owned by a trust which had a mandate to remain in existence long after the UNWTO event passed.

The judge ruled: โ€œThe Prosecutor Generalโ€™s statement which is to the effect that the respondents violated government procedure when they failed to surrender the motor vehicles to the ministry of tourism and hospitality industry after the conference is difficult to comprehend, let alone acceptโ€ฆ

โ€œHe does not cite the circular, regulation, rule or law which he is insisting the respondents should have complied with. He does not produce any evidence which supports the assertion that the respondents should have surrendered the motor vehicles to the government after the event.โ€

Mangota said it was evident from the trust deed that the government clearly wanted to separate donations to the trust from the tourism ministry. The trust โ€“ which had eight trustees โ€“ would receive and disburse funds in preparation for the conference, remain in place after the conference and retain the residue of whatever donations it collected for the conference to serve as a reservoir for the trustโ€™s pursuance of future activities which are related to tourism and hospitality, the judge noted.

โ€œIt was, in fact, never the intention of government to dissolve the trust at the end of the conference. Nor was it its intention to have whatever donations it received in preparation of the conference to be surrendered to government after the event. It, in fact, appears to be the intention of the Prosecutor General to strip the trust of its motor vehicles,โ€ the judge said.

Mangota said it was โ€œdifficult to condone, let alone acceptโ€ Hodziโ€™s โ€œunfortunateโ€ decision to label Mzembi and the others who are beneficiaries of the trust as โ€œthievesโ€ when โ€œhe could not prove their alleged unwholesome conduct.โ€

Mangota added: โ€œThe respondents, it is evident, did not steal anyoneโ€™s property. Their use of the vehicles after the conference is nowhere near the crime of theft or theft of trust property. They allowed the motor vehicles to remain registered in the name of the trust which owns them. Their conduct is not consistent with that of a thief. The elements of theft do not exist at allโ€ฆ

โ€œOn the objective analysis of the circumstances of this application, therefore, none of the respondents can be said to have committed any crime. The conduct of each of them is well above board. No element of any offence attaches to any of them. Their hands remain as white as snow. They are clean. The application is, in the result, dismissed with costs.โ€

Before pursuing forfeiture proceedings, the Prosecutor General dropped criminal charges against Mzembi, Sangarwe, Sussana Makome Kuhudzayi, Aaron Dzingira Mushoriwa and Grey Hama. In Justice Mangotaโ€™s view, โ€œhe had no option but to withdraw as he wisely did.โ€

About the author

Avatar of Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen T Steinmetz

Juergen Thomas Steinmetz has continuously worked in the travel and tourism industry since he was a teenager in Germany (1977).
He founded eTurboNews in 1999 as the first online newsletter for the global travel tourism industry.

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