2015 Mat South Agricultural Show set to be a blast

The 2015 Matabeleland South Agricultural Show is expected to be a huge blast despite the harsh economic and agricultural factors in the province.

The 58th edition of the Matabeleland South premier agricultural show gets underway in Gwanda on the 13th to the 15th of August under the theme "Innovations that promote value addition and beneficiation" a direct promotion of the government economic blueprint ZIMASSET whose emphasis is on agriculture efficiency. Two weeks before it kicks off, the show is already showing signs of surpassing the previous years' editions as it has already attracted a larger number of exhibitors, business people and entertainers than the previous years.

Speaking to media in an interview, the show publicity officer Mr Mvelo Zondo said that this year's show is set to be the biggest and the best in recent years as the province seeks to take the show back to it's glory years. The Matabeleland South Agricultural Show has traditionally ranked amongst the country's top exhibitions after the Bulawayo and Harare Agricultural shows.

Zondo said that most of the show exhibition space has been taken up with all the traditional exhibitors confirming their participation in the annual event and several new exhibitors coming through to show case their businesses and produces.

"I can confirm that the show space is almost fully taken up and that almost all of our traditional exhibitors have confirmed participating in this year's show," said Zondo. "We are glad that we have a good number of new exhibitors and several others who have not exhibited at the show for a while coming back to be part of this year's exhibition."

Evident new attractions to the exhibition will be the fast food chain Innscor Africa which will be providing a Chicken Inn and Creamy Inn outlet at the show. The fast foods giant recently opened a branch in Gwanda town which was an immediate hit with they people of Gwanda.

Amongst the traditional exhibitors who are always the crowd favourites will be the Zimbabwe Republic Police stand and the arts and crafts exhibition in the show's main hall. Livestock exhibition and sales is also expected to take prime attention as the new farmers bring their head to challenge the traditional so called big farmers.

On the entertainment aspects the schools drum majorettes  and police displays are expected to keep the expected large number of visitors at the edge of their seats. Ace Kalanga Rhumba star Martin Sibanda and Ndolwane Super Sounds will be the star attraction on the night of the close of the show.

Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko will be the guest of honour and is expected to deliver his key note address on the last day of the show before presenting prizes to the winning exhibitors. The Vice President who has shown a great interest in seeing the region's business and agriculture fortunes improve is expected to motivate the province's farmers and business personnel to take their performances to a higher level.

Zondo attributed the expected successes of the 2015 show to a wider stakeholder involvement in the preparation of the show by the show executive committee.

"We learnt from our previous years' experiences and decided to open even wider the stakeholders participation in this year's show preparations. We have called in almost all the key personnel in the town which included organisations like the Residents Association and all government departments to be part of the organising team and its already showing signs of paying dividends as opinions and efforts are being received from across the board," said Zondo.

A street survey in the town revealed that residents of the town are eagerly awaiting the show as they look forward to seeing the new exhibitors and sharing the day with newly appointed Vice President Mphoko.

"We are certainly waiting for the show so we can meet with the new Vice President face to face," said Sithembile Mkhwanazi a vendor in the town.

Zondo invited the people of Gwanda and the province to come in their numbers and experience the new look agricultural show. He also advised potential exhibitors who are still considering getting exhibition space at the show to do so quickly as space is gradually filling up and could be fully taken up soon.

"We want to invite the people of Gwanda not miss this year's show as we bring in new innovations for both visitors and exhibitors. Potential exhibitors who haven't yet made up their mind about participating need to do so quickly as space is filling up quickly and it would not be our desire to see any exhibitor being closed out of the show," concluded Zondo.