Tourism Minister responds to reports on renaming Victoria Falls

TOURISM minister Walter Mzembi has said the renaming Victoria Falls Mosi Oa Tunya which has attracted mixed reactions from tourism players was "much ado about nothing" but the focus should be on increasing revenue generation at the tourist attraction site.

 Mzembi a member of President Mugabe's cabinet said on his twitter account that if the name change was so important we would first scrap our English, French, Latin , German and in some instances Boer names to African.

Zanu PF resolved last week at its annual national conference in Chinhoyi that Victoria Falls and several other institutions must be renamed after the country's liberation war heroes.

The Zanu-PF committee on sports, culture, religion and liberation heritage chairperson Ignatius Chombo said it did not make any sense for colonial names to remain in place in an independent Zimbabwe.

Mzembi said: "Victoria Falls name change much ado about nothing. Its already double barrel : Mosi a Tunya, like many of us Africans with both. If it was so important we would first scrap our English, French, Latin , German and in some instances Boer names to African! In any event this is a shared heritage between us and the Zambians and if they chose to stick to Vic Falls? Is Mosi a Tunya Zim? And finally there is a Cabinet Committee on name changes and honors. When it gets to that, will exhaust the merits and demerits."

So there you have it. It's much ado about nothing at the moment in spite of the reported resolution at the Zanu-PF congress this past weekend.