ALPHA MEDIA Holdings Chairman Trevor Ncube is in trouble with the public over his comments deemed reckless and woefully ignorant of a powerful multibillion dollar industry to sustain hundreds of thousands of unemployed citizens.
 
This comes following his digital interview with the CNN regarding Cecil the lion. It also comes after his very disappointing comments on the whole issue.
 
For Ncube to assertively claim that ‘Zimbabwe has more pressing economic issues than this lion business is simply hitting ourselves down below the belt. Cecil the lion represents a multibillion dollar industry, tourism! And that industry in Zimbabwe is under threat, mismanaged, corruptly run and making millions for only few people. It sounds like, collectively unaware as a nation, we have been drawn and attracted to the anti western rhetoric, taking after our own Cecil the politician, President Mugabe. Thus although not really surprised, I fail to understand how some influential figures would opt to use anti western rhetoric against tourism when at the same time we are claiming to be more worried about the depressed state of the economy and human rights issues.
 
The tourism industry is 100% entangled in all our economic aspects. I would be amazed if no one in the industry places their adverts in Trevor Ncube’s papers! If tourism industry players pay for adverts in the ALPHA media stable, how many people are benefitting directly or indirectly? The whole company, and its entire staff and their dependents, including the readers and tourists/hunters visiting our game parks are benefiting from this industry.
 
It is in that vein that I would urge everyone to look in simple terms at how the economy is entangled in this Cecil issue. When a western tourist visits Zimbabwe to see or hunt our wild game, they will definitely benefit Zimbabwe from the moment they land at the airport or enter our borders. They individually pay for their visa up to $70 if this has not yet gone up as of last year. This visa fee adds to what sustains the government of Zimbabwe. The tourist will need transport, accommodation, food, water and pay double fees to enter our game parks or tourist resort areas. Look at the chain of people who have directly and indirectly benefitted: transport providers, farmers, accommodation providers, uniform suppliers, tailors, cutlery and stationery suppliers and their employees and dependents! And what of the numerous game park employees? And if you are to look at what the hunters pay to kill just one animal, the amount is even staggering. After paying for all the basic needs stated above, the hunter will part with more than $50 000 as we saw in Cecil’s case! Then consider that some hunters kill more than two such animals. How many teachers, nurses and other civil servants’ salaries would just one lion pay if this money went into the national treasury?
 
So can Trevor Ncube and others please explain what other more economic issues are worrying Zimbabweans that would make them willingly neglect and dismiss tourism and wild game as integral parts of our troubled economy? Tourism, symbolized by Cecil the Lion, is a huge global employer and that is why we have over the years been worried about South Africa advertising the Vic Falls as theirs. We cannot just be dismissive or neglectful of this important aspect of our economy simply because we have been caught napping by the social media storm.
 
Zimbabwean thinkers like Trevor Ncube have dismally failed to articulate Zimbabwe’s short-comings regarding tourism. This was an opportunity to highlight the main problems in the industry. Game parks licences are predominantly in the hands of a few people with Zanu connections, or in partnership with some Zanu leaders. Animals are being ill-treated, or sold overseas without any accountability to the government. These animals are our national heritage and thus their well being should worry everyone. There are very few people who are making millions of dollars out of tourism and game hunting by underpaying their staff, evading taxation and allowing illegal hunting! This is a pressing economic issue which is starving the government of deserved funds whilst employees in the industry are also abused. Thus this is similar to other contentious issue, Chidzwa diamonds abuse. How do we differentiate the two economic concerns that have only benefitted a few whilst starving the government and local communities of desperately needed funds? We therefore cannot talk of employment creation whilst neglecting a huge sector that is linked to all other aspects of our socio-economic life. It is totally wrong to seem to be insulting western people as having wrong priorities just because of our inability to manage our resources, political failings and economic mess. It is not their business to concern themselves with what we don’t. We don’t value each other’s lives, let alone our own animals. They value both, and we can’t fault them for that by wanting to tell them what to prioritise? In any case what are our own priorities that we want to impose on others when we cannot deal with them on our own? Why do we have to dictate our priorities to the world? And why are we in a mess if we have any priorities at all?
 
I am sure many in the west are as shocked as I am, and are asking, what do Zimbabweans really want? Is tourism, please read; game reserves, Vic Falls, and hunting, not part of the economy? How dare we disown our heritage symbolized by Cecil the lion and hand him over to the global social media? Our exhibited hatred for this lion has shown our ignorance about economic issues. Instead of championing him as part of our heritage being exploited by a few, we instead insult those who to come to spend their money on us! This is an industry as good as any and which needs people like Trevor Ncube to be proactive about instead of being reactive. Am still in shock that we disown such a global industry without even articulating what pressing economic issues we have that are not linked to tourism. What makes the western societies love southern Africa is its environment, game, natural resources and the whole tourism industry. How then do we manage to separate these from the plundering going on in our mines and game parks?
I am shocked to note that most of us, even those in the media including the likes of Trevor Ncube, seem to be unaware that the west has for many years been naming and shaming celebrities and others for killing African game. Social media is a mass psychologically driven media. It should not be surprising that it is primarily the same western society that has long been frowning on the killings of wild animals that swiftly led the global condemnation of the killing of Cecil the lion. And in this case they are condemning one of their own. So why are we angry and disowning our heritage? The global social media is against the rich and prominent individuals who come to Africa to plunder our resources like this dentist did. By turning against this global support we are in effect saying it’s ok, they can come and illegally kill our game. We are indirectly saying what this dentist and his friends did doesn’t concern us because we don’t care about our animals!! We don’t care about the game hunting business because we naively and ignorantly don’t see how connected it is to the rest of the economy.
 
And how cheeky to connect the killing of Cecil the Lion with Itai Dzamara the political activist’s missing? Let us be honest with each other. Where were the likes of Trevor Ncube when Itai Dzamara was doing his one man protest at that Africa Square? Why did they not support him when he needed their voice and presence? Are you saying you now want western societies to raise millions and pour the money into ZRP coffers to hunt for Itai Dzamara? I may be ignorant of what effort Trevor Ncube’s media houses have done to try tracing Itai’s whereabouts. Please direct me to any if they are there. Trevor Ncube has huge influence such that if he had joined Itai Dzamara’s protest, or made noise about his disappearance, he would have made an impact that have led somewhere, but he chose otherwise. He thus has no need to link Itai with the lion simply because the social media has hit hard on the illegal hunters. Itai Dzamara became famous after his abduction just like Cecil the Lion became famous after his death! It is all down to Zimbabweans ignoring what happens before their eyes and only being good at reacting. We don’t set the agenda and are always good at reacting to events. We have been embarrassed, caught napping by the global reaction to our insensitivity to our own natural resources, and in our shame we become defensive by going into attack mode. What for?
 
The truth is that Itai is part of the human rights concerns that the western societies poured millions into, and we went on to abused those millions and achieved absolutely nothing. We are not ashamed of our failure to account for the millions that were poured into opposition parties; human rights talk shops and some of the private media houses. It is our fault that we have over the years failed to dislodge Zanu from power despite financial help from the same sources angry over this illegal killing of Cecil the lion. This lion is inherently part of the economic puzzle we are pathetically pretending to troubled over whilst insulting those who have equally poured millions into our environmental issues. We thanklessly insult them yet they have sustained our efforts in human rights and environmental concerns even though we have not delivered any tangible results. The media should be at the forefront of educating the general population about how human rights and environmental issues are connected with the general economic state of the nation. Or am I expecting too much from the same media that disowned Itai at his hour of need yet is now pretending to care about him? Am I expecting too much from the same media that is neglecting tourism at its hour of need yet pretends to be concerned about the state of the economy? If we cannot see how tourism, environmental issues and human right concerns as entangled with the general economy, then I don’t know what it is that we are in our wisdom calling economic priorities!!
 
Ndaba Nhuku is an independent analyst and socio-economic commentator. He can be contacted at [email protected]