Hotel cans Zim delegation booking

THE luxurious Radisson Blu Hotel Sandton last week made an eleventh hour cancellation of bookings for a high-ranking Zimbabwean delegation of ministers led by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

This forced organisers of a two-day investment conference hosted by the Zim-SA Forum in Johannesburg to scramble to find alternative accommodation and a venue for the summit at the Capital Hotel, a few kilometres away.

Yesterday, Radisson Blu Sandton general manager, Volkan Vural, told the African News Agency (ANA) that the hotel had “declined” to host the large Zimbabwean contingent led by Mnangagwa because of the possibility of protests.

“The Radisson Blu Sandton declined hosting the Zimbabwean delegation due to security and protest concerns at the hotel. We have an obligation to ensure the safety of our in-house guests,” Vural said in response to enquiries.

“We met with the Zimbabwean delegation organisers to relay this information to them. While it was communicated at short notice, there was no ill intention towards the Zimbabwean delegation. The safety of our in-house guests will always remain our first priority.” The Zim-SA Forum was left reeling, with some accusing the hotel of pulling a political and racial stunt.

“We had booked the hotel. There was a team which had arrived ahead of the VP (Mnangagwa) and were already booked at the Radisson. They had come to assist with the security issues. On Thursday, two Zimbabwean ministers had already landed, ready to come to the Radisson. Some of our delegates from the UK had already checked into the hotel. They (Radisson Blu) sent this woman to tell us that the event has been cancelled. That was at the eleventh hour. Claire (Mitchell, cluster director of sales and marketing) said the reason was that I had not told them that Mugabe was coming,” said Anele Ndlovu, president of the Zim-SA Forum.

“We had told them upfront that it was the VP coming, not President Mugabe.”

Ndlovu said the South African government had been informed and security teams, including intelligence agencies, had been inspecting the hotel, prior to Mnangagwa’s visit.

He vowed that all future business ties with the Radisson Blu Sandton would be cut. The Zimbabwean pressure group at the centre of the storm, #Tajamuka, insists it did not pose a security risk, despite its strong disapproval of the conference and not seeing eye-to-eye with the Zimbabwean government officials.

“Our people are just harmless. They just wanted to picket, just to express their views. There was no plan or aim of any violence,” said the leader of #Tajamuka, Shelton Chiyangwa.

A displeased Zimbabwean ambassador in South Africa, Isaac Moyo, said Harare viewed the cancellation as an act of sabotage.

“We take it that the eleventh hour was tantamount to trying to sabotage an event which the Zimbabwean government had put so much effort to bring about,” said Moyo.

There was no plan or aim of any violence