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Minister Walter Mzembi

The bid by Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Dr Walter Mzembi, to land the United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) secretary-general’s post ended in tears and pain yesterday after he lost an election in Madrid, Spain.

A front-runner since the campaign for the globe’s highest tourism job started some two years ago, Dr Mzembi lost to Georgian candidate and that country’s ambassador to Spain, Mr Zurab Pololikashvili (40).  He received 15 votes to Mr Pololikashvili’s 18 at the end of the 105th session of the UNWTO Executive Council.

The council has subsequently formally recommended Mr Pololikashvili as the nominee for the post of secretary-general for the four-year-period starting January 2018.  The recommendation will be submitted for ratification to the 22nd UNWTO General Assembly to be held in Chengdu, China, in September.

Three other candidates Brazil’s Marcio Favilla, Colombia’s Jaime Alberto Cabal Sanclemente and Young-shim Dho of South Korea were also vying for the secretary-general’s post but the contest ended up being a two-horse race.

Dr Mzembi’s loss was a painful one for him personally, Zimbabwe, Sadc and Africa as he was the official candidate for them.  It  also hurt more because he had actually won the first round, after garnering 11 votes to Pololikashvili’s eight.  Favilla of Brazil got four, Colombia’s Jaime Alberto Cabal Sanclemente got three votes, while the only female candidate, Republic of Korea Ambassador Young-Shim Dho got seven in that round.  In the run-off Dr Mzembi added four more votes but his rival added 10 more.

Africa has 10 executive council votes, Europe 10, the Americas five votes, South Asia and the Pacific five votes and the Middle East three votes, thus the total possible is 33. Looking at the even spread of the voting rights across continents it is difficult for a candidate to win the election on the basis of his “home” support.  He or she must be acceptable to his or her home continent, yes, but must be acceptable to others as well.

We are unsure who actually voted for who yesterday, but the fact that Dr Mzembi got more than Africa’s allotted votes in the first round means he was a strong candidate and possibly that Africa voted for him.

The fact that he added four more in the second round reasserts the fact of his popularity beyond Africa. Thus we are delighted by the solidarity that Africa showed and the support that Africa got from other continents in voting for Dr Mzembi.

He returns home justifiably sad to have lost a close election, but he must be happy at the same time to have put up a great fight for his country and continent.  Zimbabwe’s name has been in the news for the past two years as Dr Mzembi crisscrossed the globe canvassing for support.  He addressed conferences and other top level gatherings where he marketed not only himself as a candidate but also the country he represented as well as his continent.

However, it ended in a painful loss, made worse because of its narrowness and that there is unlikely to be no second chance for him.

“It was a narrow loss,” he said. “But it is the brand Zimbabwe and brand Africa that proved that it is seeking a bigger stake in the world.  The election loss should not be seen as the end of everything. The bigger picture is our brand that we have upped through the campaign. Zimbabwe and Africa have never been this high in the matrix of world tourism and you can see the interest it has attracted. There has never been such interest on UNWTO elections. We should show goodwill and accept the result. We fell short by two votes. That was a good fight.”

We agree with him that Zimbabwe as a brand was in the limelight for the duration of the campaign.  Zimbabwean tourism should benefit from this not-so-direct destination marketing as the country’s name was mentioned when Dr Mzembi’s candidature was discussed.

His loss means that the mother continent will have to wait for at least four years from next year before it can try again to have an African landing that post.

The UNWTO has never been led by an African since its formation in 1975 but to us this was a golden opportunity for a change.

However, we take Dr Mzembi’s loss as a solid foundation that Africa should build on in next elections for the UNWTO job as well as others for international positions in the UN system and other institutions.