By Charles T.M.J. Dube

TOURISM and Hospitality Industry Minister Engineer Walter Mzembi has been up in arms lately with other institutions of Government whose actions might not be conducive to opening our doors to foreigners wishing to visit Zimbabwe for one reason or another.
There are various reasons a foreigner or national in the Diaspora would visit Zimbabwe.
For as long as the reasons are not illegal, those manning our borders do not need to interfere, let alone obstruct those who want to visit us.
After all, during their stay, they would be spending money and as they spend, they add to our gross national income.
Lest you could be wondering where all this is coming from, remember I once wrote about my experiences at Divine Yard Church of His Presence during the Easter holidays when a German-based Zimbabwean engineer was giving testimony.
Some two weeks ago, another Zimbabwean quantity surveyor based in Dubai, who has since become a friend and potential business partner, was also giving his testimony
I have been there a couple more times and heard testimonies by people coming from Dubai, Kenya, India and Nigeria, among other places.
Speaking to a lawyer charged by the church with receiving and dealing with international visitors, he told me their church has received visitors from Zambia, Namibia, Botswana, China, Australia, Japan, South Sudan, Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon and the DRC, among other countries.
He told me, from his experience, foreign visitors fall into three categories.
There are those who will not require visas, others who will need to apply for visas in advance and then, those who will get their visas at Zimbabwean ports of entry and this category includes most of the developed countries, with Kenya in the first category.
My article this week is motivated by my witness last Sunday of a testimony by a Kenyan businesswoman who had come on some spiritual search to this church.
Lucie Nyakobo, from Nairobi, arrived in Zimbabwe on August 3 around 1:20am, having done her homework on immigration requirements.
“Why are you here my sister?” asked the immigration official.
“I’m here to attend church,” answered Nyakobo.
“Which one, how did you get to know about it and are there no churches in Kenya?” asked the immigration official.
“I saw it on YouTube, it’s some John Chibwe Church called Divine Yard,” she answered.
“We only know about (Walter) Magaya and (Emmanuel) Makandiwa here and that name we have never come across. So you see one miracle on video and buy a return air ticket wasting your money, we are sending you back on the next flight (sic).” goes the immigration official.
She indicates that there is somebody from the church to pick her up and take her to the hotel she is booked at.
The lawyer from the church is called, whereupon in Shona the immigration officer says to him: “Ngatitaurirane sevarume”, which is corrupt lingua for ‘scratch my back and I will scratch yours’.
Meanwhile, the Kenyan lady had been praying loud before the male and female immigration officers as they tormented her with threats.
She is told to stop the praying nonsense. The lawyer refuses to budge and requests to see a more senior person.
He is told to come during normal working hours while the visitor is booked to take a Kenyan Airways flight at 12 noon back to Kenya.
Meanwhile, the lady notices that a Rwandese fellow traveller has compromised, paid and gotten his ‘amnesty’ to enter the country.
According to the lawyer, both the host representative and visitor were vetted by the security personnel who found nothing amiss.
They said it was really up to immigration officials as they found nothing wrong.
Nyakobo, who was eventually released after 11am, after 11 hours’ detention, claims she was surprised when the very officers who were claiming not to have known the church started to get into detailed discussions on how the very church had had problems with TB Joshua’s Synagogue Church of all Nations (SCOAN) amid indications they had probably been clearing many visitors to the very church before.
The host rep went back to the airport around 10am to explain to the immigration station head the ordeal their guest had gone through.
The immigration station head, like his security counterparts, could not find anything amiss and had to apologise to the church rep.
Two people trying to enter Zimbabwe encountered obstacles at the port of entry and both were eventually able to enter the country, albeit through different means.
There are two clear things at stake here.
It is either there are satanic agents (spiritual) at airport immigration points or just corrupt rent-seeking officers using the atypical ‘Mbudzi inofura payakasungirigwa’ (A goat grazes where it is tethered).