BY REXS MPHISA BEITBRIDGE Town is hosting a three-day business expo where communal farmers, rural factories and big companies such as Bitumen World, one of the contractors of Harare-Beitbridge Highway, are exhibiting.
All sporting activities have been postponed to pave way for the fair being held in Dulivhadzimo Stadium and ends today.
The expo, a brainchild of a group of businesspeople chaired by Anna Muleya, has attracted 70 companies and several government departments.
“We have 70 companies exhibiting and more are coming in for late registration. Besides we have several government departments some of who are actually providing services in the expo. We also have communal farmers and small-to-medium enterprises,” Muleya said.
Modelled around the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair (ZITF), the Business Expo is now in its second edition and runs under the theme, Beitbridge 24/7.
“The theme centres around how the Beitbridge Border Post works and we hope to excite businesses in Beitbridge to work round the clock and service users of the border post anytime services are required,” Muleya added.
“We also hope that businesses are attracted into Beitbridge which has of late changed its appearance into a modern town since the $300 million upgrade of the Beitbridge Border Post.”
Everjoice Gravata of River Ranch Resettlement Scheme exhibited her paprika for which she and other communal farmers are exporting to South Africa.
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“We started exporting this year and we have a huge order. We are farming under a programme called sustainable Agriculture Technology,” Gravata said.
While exhibitors are happy about the expo, a number of Beitbridge residents have, however, bashed the local authority for failing to provide a properly designed showground for the showcase.
“What is most painful is we maintain the stadium on our own but the local authority was not even decent enough to notify us. This is besides that they have failed to build a suitable venue for such brilliant ideas,” said Dulibadzimu United FC chairperson Ephart Shoko.
But town clerk Loud Ramagkapola said the local authority gave notice of the expo.
“We advertised in advance and people should have planned with that in mind,” he said without explaining why his local authority did not have showgrounds found even in remote rural areas.
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