“As Government is looking into parastatal reforms to make them more viable and self sustainable, one key element is to appoint qualified youths in senior positions. They are more in sync with the modern world and have the energy and intellect in the ICT led 21st Century. Past tendencies have been to turn them into old people’s homes where senior government officials were appointed, but that has proven not to work. We want to see relatively young people with qualifications to steer parastatals such as ZTA, Air Zimbabwe to mention a few. These should also be apolitical appointments,” said Kamuti.

…Government urged to consider youths in top appointments, boards under parastatal reforms

Ngoni Dapira

THE Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) yesterday (Wednesday) announced the appointment of Rita Likukuma as the new acting chief executive with effect from February 1, 2019.

The Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Senator Priscah Mupfumira during the announcement said the incumbent would be in acting capacity on behalf of Dr. Karikoga Kaseke who has been off work on medical grounds since November last year.

Dr Kaseke is set to leave the institution he led for 13 years since July 2005 after his reassignment from the Ministry of Transport and Communications where he was the permanent secretary.

According to the press release from ZTA Likukuma is expected to bring in vast corporate governance experience having served on various Boards.

“She is the deputy chairperson of the current Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Board and non-executive director of PG Industries. Mrs Likukuma is the current chairman at Turnall Holdings Ltd and she is a director on the Morgan Company Board, an international business consortium currently in advanced stages of setting up in Zimbabwe. She was also the chairperson of the National Gallery of Zimbabwe until January 2013. In June 2014, she was appointed a member of the CMED Board of Directors,” read the press release.

Likukuma served as the managing director at the Solar Division at Art Corporation and was a senior executive at Unilever.  She holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Oxford Brookes University and a Bachelor of Science Economics Degree at the University of Zimbabwe.  The new ZTA Acting CE also studied for a City and Guilds Diploma in Electrical Installations.

The appointment of the Likukuma comes at a time when there has been a strong drive to push President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s new administration to reform State firms and quasi government enterprises, including changing key personnel in the institutions and implementing performance based contracts for senior management.

Likukuma is coming in at a time when a lot of momentum had been set in ZTA which adopted the National Tourism Strategy, vision 2025, which aims to attract at least seven million visitors in the next few years.

There are many issues which will need to be addressed chief among them the tourism revolving fund, which was capitalised by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to about $15 million at inception but was increased to $50 million last year. Tourism operators have been complaining that they were not accessing the fund, for unspecified reasons despite applying for key infrastructure development projects in the sector. There have also been calls for the body to capacitate its regional offices more following its decentralisation.

The Eastern Highlands Campaign which s advocating for the promotion of tourism in the eastern bloc of the country has been calling for this since its inception. It cited that over the years very little funds have been channelled towards promotion of tourism activities in this region which boasts of many iconic features like the Mtarazi Falls and Inyangani Mountains among many others.

On another note an analyst Tendai Kamuti encouraged President Mnangagwa to consider appointment of qualified youths to steer such parastatals as they were more in sync with the modern world. He said such appointments should also be apolitical.

“As Government is looking into parastatal reforms to make them more viable and self sustainable, one key element is to appoint qualified youths in senior positions. They are more in sync with the modern world and have the energy and intellect in the ICT led 21st Century. Past tendencies have been to turn them (parastatals) into old people’s homes where senior government officials were appointed, but that has proven not to work. We want to see relatively young people with qualifications to steer parastatals such as ZTA, Air Zimbabwe to mention a few. These should also be apolitical appointments,” said Kamuti.