Organizers of the CEO Africa Round table have urged Victoria Falls hospital to use the $15 000 donation to the health centre from President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s necktie to acquire medicines and ensure lives are saved.
The $15 000 was realized from the auctioning of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s neck tie during the 5th CEO Africa round table held in March this year.
Speaking during the handover ceremony of the donation held in Victoria Falls last week, CEO Africa Round table Chairman, Oswell Binha explained said the gesture to hospital is a demonstration that when there is dialogue and collaboration, society is the ultimate winner.
“We made a pledge to donate the money to charity and am glad that Vic Falls hospital was chosen as the beneficiary. This is a further demonstration that where there is dialogue and collaboration, the society is the ultimate winner,” said Binha.
He added that the auctioning of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s necktie was a mark of a new era marked by genuine engagement in Zimbabwe which also demonstrated the breaking of barriers that once separated business and government.
“On the 15th of March 2018, when we asked His Excellency, President Mnangagwa to take off his neck tie in front of more than 200 delegates and millions of people who watched the video on TV and online, it was a demonstration, from our view point, for opening up frank dialogue lines with the highest office on the land.
“During the same occasion, we asked CEOs to take off their neck ties, expensive neck ties which they had put on, on a day they were meeting the number one CEO in the country,” said Bimha.
“These neck ties were donated to his Excellency including an American flag tie which the President happily did put on. This, in our view, was a demonstration of exchange of views and breaking the barriers that separated business and government for a long period of time.
“It was a demonstration that we can reach out to everybody, including those that we labelled and labelled us enemies before. It was a mark of a new era of genuine engagement in Zimbabwe,” added Binha.
Tafadzwa Musarara, chairman of the Grain Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe, bought the tie after beating other contenders whose financial muscle only stretched up to $10 000.