Shingi Munyeza, ceo of Zimbabwe Sun Limited/African Sun and chairman of the Zimbabwean Tourism Authority, has called for re-investment into his troubled country saying the best time to invest was now “while the guns are still smoking”. He assured delegates to the TBCSA's Hospitality Investment in Africa (Hica) conference in Cape Town today (October 2) that “next year this time Zimbabwe will be a totally different place because finally, we have reached rock bottom. The only way to go is up. Once you are there doing business you will see things are changing. He called on investors not to wait for African countries to become “politically correct or to conform to foreign economic practises”, because, he claimed, in Africa, there were always some levels of power abuse or human rights abuses. He said investors who brought new capital were welcome, but opportunistic ones who came “to pick-up cheap assets” would not get far. The African Sun, he said, was building four new hotels in Zimbabwe, “because there will be a critical shortage of hotel beds when things come right”. Drawing from his company's experience of investing in Africa, he said it was important to go where the natural resources were and to invest in human resources. Hotels in major hubs became the trigger for economic growth. He said Kinshasa and Lubumbashi currently needed 2000 hotel beds each, following political stability in the DRC. He warned that Africa was not ready for hotel management contracts, which he said, wouldn't last longer than three years. He also warned against unethical practises such as buying off officials. Among other things, he advised investors to “understand the politics from the viewpoint of different groupings and understand the sensitivities”, but to have a financial exit strategy ready and be prepared to cut their losses as well.