The Sheraton Professor
JONATHAN MOYO, the Zimbabwean minister
of information, has recently retreated to his native Zimbabwe after
Wits University demanded that he either performed his university duties
for them or left his post. While in Johannesburg Professor Moyo lived
in a smart Saxonwold house but he also retained a luxury suite at the
Sheraton Hotel in Harare. It is from this latter base that he continues
to operate now that he is - by some margin - the most prominent member
of the Zimbabwean cabinet. This has led the independent press in Harare
to term him "the Sheraton Professor", an appellation celebrated in many
jokes and cartoons.
Moyo is not universally appreciated, so perhaps it was not surprising
when a representative of the Sheraton Hotel recently rang one of the
newspapers to complain of the constant jokes about the Sheraton
Professor. The Sheraton was a well-respected international hotel chain,
he pointed out. Why must the press constantly try to degrade their
image by associating the much-despised figure of Professor Moyo with
the hotel? Everyone knew he was the most unpopular man in Zimbabwe and
this constant association of his name with the hotel was damaging their
reputation.
Similar thoughts have occurred to other Harare businessmen with
prominent government connections. The sight of street power in action
in the Ivory Coast and Yugoslavia has concentrated minds.
Unfor-tunately for the hotel, far more people now know of Moyo as the
Sheraton Professor than were ever aware that he was supposed to have a
job at Wits.