ZIMBABWE Tourism Authority (ZTA) chief executive officer, Karikoga Kaseke has urged the government to urgently order the police to desist from mounting countless roadblocks on major highways, saying they were tarnishing the country’s image and frustrating foreign visitors.

Speaking at a ceremony for Kenya Airways’ inaugural flight to Victoria Falls yesterday, the ZTA chief said the roadblocks were making it difficult to market Zimbabwe as a competitive tourist destination.

Kaseke complained that on a 21-kilometre drive from the resort town to the newly-refurbished Victoria Falls International Airport, he encountered four police roadblocks.

“The Vice-President himself, when I talked to him, he said that he was going to call the Home Affairs minister [Ignatius] Chombo, to really talk about this issue. The police roadblocks are making this destination unattractive. We cannot be attractive when, from Victoria Falls town to the airport, you have four roadblocks,” Kaseke said.

Looking directly at Transport and Infrastructure Development minister Joram Gumbo at the high table, who was the guest of honour, Kaseke remarked: “I know, minister, you were not stopped, but you saw the police, you saw them standing by the road. But I am not a minister; I was stopped four times. What were they [police] asking me? They were asking me about things that are not normally asked by any policeman anywhere else in the world. And I am simply saying that this is a big, big challenge.”

Victoria Falls mayor, Sifiso Mpofu, acknowledged the problem of countless police roadblocks.