Tourism minister drives 300km to win back SA tourists

What started as a viral blast on social media by a frustrated South African traveller, blogger and influencer over an encounter with the Zimbabwe Republic Police was transformed into a feel-good story of accountability and engagement after Zimbabwe’s Tourism Minister Barbara Rwodzi personally intervened, drove more than 300 kilometres to meet the visitors and helped turn a critic into a champion for the country’s tourism potential.

Speaking exclusively to IOL from Zimbabwe, George Van Deventer, who lives in Keurboomstrand along South Africa’s picturesque Garden Route in the Western Cape, said he initially recorded and posted a video criticising his experience after he and his travel group were stopped at a police roadblock in Chipinge, describing the encounter as deeply concerning and out of character with the Zimbabwe under the current dispensation led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.

Van Deventer posted the video on the Facebook page of Trans Africa Self Drive Adventures and Tours, which has more than 700 000 followers. The clip was widely shared by local and international social media users, quickly pushing the issue beyond Zimbabwe’s borders.

Among those who amplified the video was Zimbabwean international journalist and social media influencer Hopewell Chin’ono, who commented that some requirements within Zimbabwe’s traffic regulations amounted to “a breakdown of common sense”.

Van Deventer said he and his partner, Malinki, spend most of the year travelling across the SADC region and have been visiting Zimbabwe since the early 2000s.

During the era of former president Robert Mugabe, police had become infamous along Zimbabwe’s freeways for extorting motorists, particularly those driving vehicles with South African registration plates, with travellers frequently fined for issues such as not carrying reflective jackets.

Following the change in political leadership under Mnangagwa, there was a marked shift in how tourists experienced road travel in Zimbabwe, with authorities pledging to clean up roadblocks and rebuild the country’s tourism image.