The impact of current visa regime policy on tourism recovery and development in Zimbabwe

This paper reports the results on the impact of the current visa regime policy on tourism recovery and development in Zimbabwe. The focus was on finding out how the visa regime could impact on efforts to bring into the country more visitors following the decline in visitor inflows from 2000 to 2008. Data was collected from selected visitors from different member states which require visas to enter into the county in the period between January 2010 and July 2010.The findings shows that visa restrictions play a small part in discouraging visitors to visit Zimbabwe. The visa regime policy was designed in such a way that it was easy for passport holders from traditional markets to have relatively easy passage into Zimbabwe. It was also discovered that visa restrictions were part of international travel conditions but how to get the visa became the competitive advantage or disadvantage a destination can have compared with its competitors. Zimbabwe’s traditional markets believed that the visa was not difficult to get nor was it too expensive as to scare away visitors. However, the emerging markets such as China who are in Group C had problems getting the visa as they were required to apply for the visa before traveling to Zimbabwe

The efficacy of power sharing politics in Zimbabwe: Lessons from Malaysia

This paper looks at the changing political equation in Zimbabwe since the emergence of powerful opposition at the turn of the century. As a result new political players and entrepreneurs have entered the political market and in the process challenging the founding fathers of the nation. An unprecedented political and economic crisis added new complexities to the future of the country and political rules of the game. In this sense, a new political regime arose in the form of a power-sharing framework involving the main political players in 2008. So, what lessons can Zimbabwe learn from the Malaysian consociational arrangement? The central proposition of this paper is that Zimbabwe can learn a lot from Malaysia despite the apparent differing circumstances and dynamics between the two countries

The Southern African poultry value chain: Regional development versus national imperatives

This paper highlights the key strategies, both regional and domestic, that have led to the current structure of the poultry value chain in Southern Africa. While large firm strategies in poultry have been found to be regional in nature, and important regional developments in soybean production, processing, and trade have emerged, the regional poultry value chain has remained largely underdeveloped. This underdevelopment is linked to a discord between national and regional policies, with non-trade barriers such as import limits and complete bans on some products playing a key role in some of the countries

The implementation of peace and security programme initiative in Nigeria: The role of NEPAD

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) as an Agency of the African Union was established in 2001 by the African leaders with the view of eradicating poverty in Africa.The NEPAD programme initiatives encompasses the political, economic and social-cultural development of the African states through partnership with the private and public sectors, the international community and countries in and outside Africa.Through thematic areas of NEPAD such as, democracy and political governance has encompassed the peace and security programme initiative of NEPAD as a priority to be achieved. This then forms the objective of this paper to be studied considering the insecurity challenges that faced the Nigerian state as a member of the African Union and co-initiator of the NEPAD programme initiative.Since 2009, the Nigerian state is faced with the activities of the Boko Haram militant group whose engagement has led to activities such as burning and bombing of people’s houses, churches, Mosques and public buildings, killing of innocent lives including but not limited to both Christians and Muslims, attack on security operatives and schools which include bombing of structures.This paper therefore, is to study the strategic plan of NEPAD in implementing the peace and security objective for the purpose of promoting peace and political stability in Nigeria.The methodology adopted in this research is the review of previous literature, the use of descriptive, historical, and interpretative methods of analysis, with the available research materials. The findings thus reveal that, issues such as zoning of political and elective positions should be addressed in the Nigerian constitution in order to accommodate the six geopolitical zones so as to promote unity, political stability, peace and security within the Nigerian state

The role of ECOWAS on economic governance, peace and security perspectives in West Africa

The West African States are known as States with endowed natural and human resources that ought to have an enlargement in the area of economic growth and development.This will help yield results to the countries in West Africa through economic cooperation among states within the region.It is therefore, the goal and objective of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to promote regional integration and co-operation for the purpose of ensuring economic growth and development in the sub-region.The endowed resources in West African states are mostly untapped due to challenges that face the region such as lack of technological know-how, bad governance, political instability, lack of adequate diversification, infrastructure problem, lack of political will and the inability to involve the private sector adequately.Therefore, the objectives of this study is to firstly, create an enabling environment where peace and security is sustainable for West African states to engineer economic governance through regional integration and economic co-operation among the countries in West Africa, and secondly, to enable partnership with the private sector.The methodology used in this research is review of previous literature and the use of content analysis which will also provide useful information on the region.The findings from this study reviews that, peace and security sustainability can only be maintained when the West African States employ the measures that would lead to economic growth and development of the region through provision of job opportunities to the youths, employing the early-warning mechanism, transparency and accountability in governance and good leadership to foster growth of ECOWAS community

Conflict resolution: The truncated zoning arrangement and the Buhari Political Tsunami in Nigeria

The Nigerian Fourth Republic ushered in a democratically elected government in 1999 that paved way for the civilians to take over government after a long period of military rule in Nigeria.This made the political parties to project their candidates for contest in occupying the political positions at the federal, states and local government levels.Thus, such projection through the ruling political party that won the election in 1999 known as the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), went into zoning arrangement that could give the country’s six geopolitical zones a place for participation in the administration of the country.This arrangement coordinated the highest positions such as the President, Vice-President, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and Chairman of the ruling party.However, such arrangements were only practiced from 1999 to 2011.The zoning arrangements were truncated in 2011, which led to conflict in the Northern part of the country.The objective of the study therefore, is to examine the consequences of the truncated zoning arrangement and lessons from the Buhari Political tsunami in 2015 general elections in Nigeria, with interest on how to resolve such conflicts that emanated.The study made use of qualitative research and the review of previous literature as sources of data collection. The findings revealed that,many people were killed during the years 2011-2015 under study; both private and public properties were also destroyed.This study recommends constitutional approach regarding the zoning formula to accommodate all the six geopolitical zones in Nigeria in order to resolve the conflicts therein

Identifying growth opportunities in the Southern African Development Community through regional value chains: The case of the animal feed to poultry value chain

This paper considers findings of studies analysing the development of a regional animal feed to poultry value chain in southern Africa (Botswana, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe). The southern African regional poultry value chain is underdeveloped, although important changes include investments by South Africa-based multinational firms and strong growth in Zambia. Building on this growth requires coherent trade and industrial policies supporting investments across countries and practical measures to reduce barriers to intra-regional trade and transport costs. The potential to develop a regional poultry value chain is substantial, considering that the South African deep-sea trade deficit in poultry is larger in size than the Zambian industry

The Impact of Oil Price Changes on FTSE/JSE Industry Indices Performance

The impact of oil price changes on stock market index of the JSE, South Africa, was examined using NARDL model using 2008 -2017 monthly data of aggregated industrial indices. All-Share index was incorporated in the estimation equation to represent market factors. The results indicate that in the short-term, the indices responded asymmetrically to oil price changes whilst in the long-term they responded symmetrically. Oil & Gas, Industrials, Consumers services and Technology indices followed oil price change direction whereas Consumer goods and Financials indices opposed oil price change direction. Healthcare and Telecommunications responded in one direction irrespective oil price change direction

Accumulation of multiple heavy metals in plants grown on soil treated with sewage sludge for more than 50 years presents health risks and an opportunity for phyto-remediation

Long-term application of sewage leads to heavy metal accumulation in soils, causing serious risks to plants, humans, animals and the environment, and phytoremediation could be essential. A study was conducted to determine the concentration of heavy metals in self-seeding vegetables, amaranthus (Amaranthus dubius), tomato (Solanum lycopersicum), black nightshade (Solanum nigrum), Rumex pulcher and turf grass, grown on land treated with sewage sludge for over 50 years. A pot experiment was conducted to determine phytoremediation potential of Indian mustard (Brassica juncea), lucern (Medicago sativa), vetch (Vicia sativa), rape (Brassica napus) and ryegrass (Lolium perenne), using the same soil. Another pot experiment was conducted to determine effects on tissue metal composition of Indian mustard of adding increasing concentrations of EDTA. All the self-seeding vegetables had tissue Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Cd and Pb concentrations higher than toxicity thresholds. Turf grass tissue had higher concentrations of all the metals than all the self-seeding vegetables growing on the soil. Indian mustard and rape had the highest biomass and tissue concentration of most of the metals studied. Addition of EDTA to the soil drastically increased uptake of Zn, Cu, Cd and Pb but not Cr and Ni. The findings of this study imply that self-seeding vegetables and turf grass growing on the polluted soils pose serious health risks and that Indian mustard, and to some extent rape, have potential for phytoremediation, especially if grown on the soil treated with EDTA.Keywords: heavy metals, phytoremediation, risk, sewage sludge, turf grass, uptak