ZANU PF has reportedly hired the $1,2 million aluminium and glass structure that was used to host the main event of the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly in Victoria Falls in August for its 14th annual conference set for Chinhoyi from December 10-15.
BY RICHARD MUPONDE
The marquee was erected in Victoria Falls by a South African company Chattels Infrastructure with the government saying it would remain in the resort town for use for future conferences, but it was dismantled a week after the premier tourism indaba and taken back across the Limpopo.
The semi-permanent structure is said to have a lifespan of 30 years after being pitched.
Sources said Zanu PF had hired the same company to erect the same marquee for its conference after a bid by the party to build a proposed $10 million conference centre in Chinhoyi failed to materialise.
The party has opted to construct a temporary structure on the grounds of the Chinhoyi University of Technology.
Although Zanu PF Mashonaland West provincial chairperson John Mafa could not disclose whether the party had hired the exact marquee used for the UNWTO, he confirmed that the model of the structure would be the same.
“We found out that because of the elections, we could not finish building our conference centre and decided to put up a temporary structure,” Mafa said. “However, construction of the conference centre will not stop. We are going to pitch the temporary structure at the Chinhoyi University of Technology grounds. Yes, it will be a state-of-the-art structure like that one used for the UNWTO and a South African company has been contracted to do it.”
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However, our Bulawayo Bureau has it on good authority that the same structure erected for the UNWTO event in Victoria Falls would be used for the party’s conference.
