Former Tourism minister Walter Mzembi on Tuesday mounted a defence before High Court judge Benjamin Chikowero, insisting the television sets he is accused of illegally donating to major churches were part of a Cabinet-approved strategy to boost revenue through religious and sports tourism.
Mzembi, who remains in custody, began testifying after his application for discharge at the close of the State’s case was dismissed.
He was led in evidence by his lawyers, Killian Mandiki and Emmanuel Samundombe.
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He told the court the screens were neither personal gifts nor clandestine handouts, but part of a multi-sector project endorsed by former president Robert Mugabe, then prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai and then vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa, who officiated at some of the donation events.
The television screens were donated to three churches, Zion Christian Church (ZCC), United Family International Church (UFIC) and Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD).
“Mugabe gave me the power to donate the TVs,” Mzembi said. “Even Tsvangirai gave a nod… Mnangagwa handed over the assets at Mbungo (ZCC). He was assigned by Mugabe. Even Sekeramayi was there when the TVs were commissioned.”
He argued that the donations formed part of a broader strategy to rebuild the tourism sector, which he described as economically collapsed when he took office.
“When I joined the ministry, it had only five employees the Director of Finance and his subordinates,” he said.
“The ministry had collapsed as a result of the toxic politics of 2008… and the land reform programme of 2000. Arrivals had dropped to about 250,000 per annum.”
He said he inherited a damaged brand and a sector bringing in just US$296 million in revenue.
His task, he told the court, was to reconstruct the entire ministry. By the time he left in 2017, he said, the sector had been transformed.
“I had steered the sector to 1.5 million arrivals and US$1 billion in sector revenue,” he said. “My job entailed recovery strategy, a new national tourism policy… and refining the existing Tourism Act.”
Mzembi said government had turned to tourism as a key driver of hard currency during the years of the Inclusive Government.
“I was given the directive to fund the civil servants’ salary bill, and Cabinet said the quickest way of fundraising was tourism,” he said. “Our planning target was that any foreign arrival was supposed to stay at least three nights in Zimbabwe, and we were tracking the revenue.”
It is in this context, he said, that government pursued both sports and religious tourism with the public-viewing screens forming part of the 2010 World Cup fan-park project, later repurposed for religious gatherings.
“The genesis of the fan parks was that they were processed by the Sports, Tourism, Image and Tourism Taskforce,” he said. “Football, being the biggest political party, had the potential to unite our people because they were too divided due to the political tensions in 2008.”
He said the 2010 World Cup preparations involved several ministries and agencies.
“Army signals corps were involved, storage was done at Manyame Air Base, as well as transport and installation. The Ministry of Sports had already indicated where we would locate the TVs, and Nelson Chamisa, who was heading ICTs, wanted to create information kiosks with these TVs. Air Zimbabwe airlifted the equipment into the country. Provincial governors were key players.”
Most provinces, he said, failed to take up their allocated screens due to operational costs.
“ZTA was supposed to go with 10 TVs. Not a single province had taken the screens… Only Mashonaland West collected a screen, and the army installed it. It was not properly secured; it fell, and donkeys trampled on the equipment.”
Mzembi testified that the screens later became central to government’s religious-tourism strategy, which targeted large church gatherings to boost revenue.
“Inside the religious sector there were twin evils of tax avoidance and evasion,” he said. “There was a lot of traffic to religious-branded events but no money going into the fiscus. We looked at the church and said tithe we won’t touch, but commercial activities must be taxed and it caused a lot of commotion.”
He said government offered incentives, not penalties, to religious institutions.
“We actually gave more to the church… As beneficiaries of SI 173 of 2013, the church received rebates for capital equipment, construction of churches and hotels.”
The Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, he added, conducted benchmark visits to major international religious shrines, including Jerusalem, Rome, TB Joshua and ZCC in South Africa.
At home, he said, the screens were deployed at major religious events, including Prophet Walter Magaya’s gatherings.
“At PHD, Magaya said during his ‘Night of Turnaround’ he was going to congregate 500,000 people, so the overscreens were at the overflow area.”
Mzembi insisted the donations were lawful, approved and part of a government-wide economic strategy, not a personal initiative.
The trial continues Wednesday with Mzembi calling a witness to testify in his defence.
