HARARE - Zimbabwe’s love affair with South African songbird Zahara appears to be in no danger of ending anytime soon.

The Mzansi singing sensation, who performed during the Victoria Falls Carnival on December 30, could be heading to Zimbabwe for the fourth time in April for a duet with Ninja president Winky D.

Zahara was re-invited by Tourism minister Walter Mzembi who is keen to make a strong build-up to the UNWTO Conference in August.

The minister announced during the popular South African’s performance at the Victoria Falls carnival his intention to pair her up with Winky D in a gig to be held in Victoria Falls during Easter.

Mzembi said initial indications are that Zahara will perform in the Victoria Falls Easter gig.

“I noticed that Winky D was loved by the Victoria Falls crowd and they also loved Zahara’s performance”, said the Tourism minister.

“I then decided that we should give people what they want especially when we want to conscientise them about the important UNWTO conference.

“It is our way of trying to measure how far we have gone in preparations and the choice of Easter is strategic.

“We will be using a rented crowd on Easter.

“We also used a rented crowd during the carnival and we realised what people want and also some areas we can improve on. We used the New Year to test whether Victoria Falls is ready for the conference,” he said.

The minister added the two are set to be major draw cards in a bill that will include other local artistes.

“Myself and the Zambian Tourism minister were instructed by our two presidents Robert Mugabe and Michael Sata to be on the ground and see what is going on. Surely it does not help to sit in the office.

“We talked about running simultaneous parties on both sides of the border.

“We actually want the private sector to come in, in terms of providing entertainment and entertainment joints.

“I was impressed with what I saw at the carnival, how the private sector organised themselves to bring something like that to life,” he said.

The Tourism minister added that the UNWTO conference theme songs were still works-in- progress.

“The other thing is that we are working on coming up with a theme song which will be used to market the conference. I believe that music helps send messages.

“I have talked to the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority (ZTA) and the ministerial team in terms of getting this ahead.”

Mzembi is, however, unhappy with the high prices of services and products in Victoria Falls.

“For starters services in Victoria Falls are very expensive; the service culture has gone down.

“I think people were spoiled by the hyper-inflation that affected the country during that time.

“Services there are too expensive and we need to revise that.”