EDITORIAL COMMENT: Let’s settle our politics

REPORTS this week indicated that the Britain and the United States, key markets for Zimbabwe’s tourism industry, have issued travel warnings to their citizens advising against travelling to the southern African country.

The reason: The political environment is getting increasingly tense, with widespread protests against government policies and mismanagement of the economy. These protests have been met with a clampdown by police.

It has been largely the political threats against the protesters, issued by the ruling party bigwigs and government bureaucrats, that have attracted the most negative international press publicity and projected the country as an unsafe travel destination.

Although the travel warnings do not necessarily prohibit the US and British citizens from coming to Zimbabwe, the natural effect would be an indirect ban against non essential travel to countries considered to be hotspot of violence. No tourist, particularly given that all tourists want to enjoy their holidays away from their home counties, would want to risk their lives travelling to a place that is generally classified to be unsafe and facing rampant violence.

The last time we had travel warnings in 2008, the economy suffered significantly. For example, the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority reported that just in the month of April in 2008, 80 percent of hotel bookings had been cancelled after the US, the UK, Japan and South Korea issued warnings discouraging their citizens from visiting Zimbabwe due to tension and incidents of violence after the March 29 2008 elections.

At least 10 chartered flights, which were scheduled to bring tourists into the resort town of Victoria Falls, had also been cancelled due to increasing apprehension over developments in the country.

Of course, Zimbabwe cannot currently be characterised as unsafe at the moment, and no foreigners have been targeted in the skirmishes between government and its people; but foreign countries have an obligation to advise their people about the potential risk of travelling to certain countries.

As a country, we know the consequences of such travel warnings on our fragile economy: Tourism receipts dwindle, affecting tourism and leisure facilities and consequently the fiscus.

That would also mean more joblessness — we already have a staggering level of unemployment in the country at an estimated 90 percent. The two million jobs our politicians promised in 2013 have failed to materialise, and instead more jobs have been lost due to company closures and retrenchments.

Government should seriously consider the concerns of its citizens and ensure these are addressed to prevent protests. The high level of unemployment in the country is indeed a recipe for disaster, and could lead to looting and vandalism by our idle youths who should be at work helping in the development of the economy.

This is the time for serious commitment by government towards reviving this crumbling economy. Growing agitation, over unmet promises, will trigger unrest by citizens and this is not good for an economy. The ball is in government’s court.

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