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Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau

THE stage is set for the second edition of the Beitbridge Expo and People’s Choice Awards to be held at the new Zebra Hilltop lodge some 50 km west of the border town on Saturday.

Organisers of the event are set to reward businesses, organisations and corporates which excelled last year in their various sectors.

The event will run under the theme “Beitbridge 24 seven.”

Among other things, the expo seeks to inculcate a culture of quality service delivery in the town by many service providers on a 24-hour basis.

It also intends to, in the long run, build a showground to match the town’s modernisation initiative.

Beitbridge Business Expo chairperson and award-winning businesswoman, Dr Anna Muleya said they had covered all the ground and were ready to roll.

“The preparations are now at a very advanced stage, the adjudicators are almost done judging the companies and all the necessary logistics,” she said.

“As for the people’s choice, nominations are all done and the winners are already determined by the online system that we use. So basically we are ready.

“The theme this year remains Beitbridge 24 seven, we believe we haven’t really achieved our target. The idea is to have services and facilities available for 24 hours considering that the border is open for 24 hours”.

Dr Muleya said in the long run, travellers passing through Beitbridge town should access all the facilities that they need including restaurants, fuel and many other services.

She said they will keep working under the same theme until they get to a point where their vision bears fruit.

The official said the awards were being held as a way of encouraging a culture of competition within the organisations in the town.

“When businesses and organisations compete, it means the standards of services rise. Ideally, it is good to have a day in the year where all the corporates and people in Beitbridge meet in one place in a glamorous situation and get to network and get to know each other better,” said Dr Muleya.

“The voting process for the people’s choice category is done via an online system and this is closed and done. Now the adjudicators are finalising the ones where they assess organisations and come up with results, so that process is already concluded”.

She said this year they will be awarding businesses under 36 categories which cover almost all organisations in the town.

The response from the community and corporates, Dr Muleya said, has been great and they have been having many enquiries.

She said the community had voted in their numbers for most awards which required going through the online system, compared to last year.

“Our guest of honour this year will be the Zimborders Consortium chief executive officer, Mr Francois Diedrechsen and we have invited a number of dignitaries to grace the event,” said Dr Muleya.

“Beitbridge’s finest master of ceremony, Sam (Sam Muleya) who is now based in Harare will host the event and there will be a number of entertainment activities supported by a band and many others.

“From the last event, we learnt a lot from the feedback that we got from the community and all the people who attended and we tried to incorporate as many of those suggestions as possible.”

She said a number of corporations had come on board in terms of sponsorship and that they were looking forward to having a memorable event.

The Beitbridge Expo, she said, was focusing more on recognising organisations including corporates, Government agencies, and non-governmental organisations among others.

In some instances, she said gongs would be awarded to individuals who had made an impact in the community in different spheres. X @tupeyo