Zimbabweans divided on cost of hosting Brazil

May 31, 2010, 16:28 GMT

Harare - The government of cash-strapped Zimbabwe on Monday defended paying 800,000 dollars in appearance fees to host Brazil for a football friendly on Wednesday.

World Cup hopefuls Brazil have lined up two friendlies in Africa before the tournament starts - one against Zimbabwe in Harare and a second against Tanzania on Monday.

According to the minutes of a meeting held two weeks ago between Zimbabwean tourism and football officials seen by the German Press Agency dpa, the five-time world champions initially demanded 1.3 million dollars in appearance fees but later agreed to 800,000 dollars.

Zimbabwe's Minister of Tourism Walter Mzembi, who brokered the deal, refused to confirm the amount, saying that to do so would be 'breaching confidentiality of the contract.

'All I can tell you is that the leverage we will get playing against the likely winners of the 2010 World Cup is huge. In fact bigger than any amounts involved in this deal. I can say Zimbabwe is in the World Cup finals by default. What more would one want?,' Mzembi told dpa.

The documents seen by dpa show the government of Zimbabwe agreeing to pay 33 percent of the total cost of hosting the Selecao, while three corporate sponsors pick up the remainder of the tab.

Zimbabweans are divided on the judiciousness of the spending on the visit, which comes as the country of 12 million struggles to recover from a decade of economic collapse under President Robert Mugabe.

The situation has stabilized since Mugabe entered a power-sharing government last year with the former opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) but foreign aid and investment has been coming in at only a trickle and the one-time breadbasket of southern Africa is still suffering acute food shortages.

'Zimbabwe's priorities have gone berserk I would say,' John Makumbe, University of Zimbabwe professor of political science, told dpa.

'There are no books at schools, colleges and schools. No adequate medicines at hospitals, but we can afford to pay millions of dollars just for grand standing. Where has the government's conscience gone to?'

Teacher Jeffrey Svondo said he could not afford a jersey on his teacher's salary of 150 dollars a month, but he did intend to buy two tickets to Wednesday's game for himself and his wife.

'This is once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,' Svondo raved. 'I cannot go to South Africa for the World Cup so seeing Kaka and Robinho will be the greatest thing to have happened to me.'

The cheapest tickets to the game in the 60,000-capacity National Sports Stadium cost 10 dollars. VIP tickets cost 60 dollars.