The one day I worked for a labour broker

On my way to Mamelodi January 2018

As so called black middle class, we pretend to be detached from the working class struggles such as the trade unions' fights against labour brokers and the shocking service from Metro Rail.  We lie to ourselves that we are not affected by these events. Beginning September 2017 after exactly 10 years in the same job I had a decision to make. Do I stop my piggery project in Zimbabwe that I had already invested over $20 000 and concentrate working here in South Africa? It was not a very difficult decision to make as I did not see any career growth prospects so the next day I started serving my 4 weeks’ notice. Running a project in Zimbabwe whilst staying in another country is a challenge and especially when it comes to money issues it becomes even trickier. When a customer pays when you are not there you might never see a cent. So every two weeks either I or my wife would go to Zimbabwe to make sure that we buy stock feed and monitor the project. I have seen many people in the diaspora sending money for projects such as building a house and only for money to be squandered by relatives. In 2010 we also lost about $1 000 meant for plumbing when a close relative ran away leaving our small children with workers at our house in Zimbabwe.

My late cousin spent more than a decade in the United Kingdom and he sent a haulage truck and money to buy cattle, residential stands etc. When he came back to Zimbabwe around 2010 he had nothing and had to start constructing a house in Chitungwiza and when he died a few years ago he had not done much construction at his house. So on 2 October 2017, on the day I finished serving my notice, I took a bus to Harare that night. Travelling by bus is the cheapest way to get to Harare from Pretoria as it costs around R400 as long as you have time. I would spend most of October in Mutoko and I managed to buy about 6 tonnes of maize bran at about 40% of the price I had paid to farmers nearer to Chivhu where my piggery project is located. That feed would last me about 2 months. After transporting the animal feed, I came back to concentrate on my small transport venture in South Africa.

In December 2017, I had about 2 dozens of pigs ready for market and the price I was getting from our local butcheries was around $3 per kg. At times it would take between 2 weeks to 2 months to get paid even though the butcheries would sell the pigs within a few days. In December 2017, there was a huge demand of pork, where some supermarkets would sell pork for around $9 per kg, however for us farmers we never got to benefit from this windfall. I know of many small scale producers who had to stop pig farming as the status quo only favoured retailers and not farmers. In February 2018, I decided to increase my production so that I could raise 600pigs per year with the aim of opening my own butcheries. I then decided to go back to work temporarily in order to help raise the required finance to buy butchery equipment. I responded to a six month contract position at a big financial institution through what I thought was an employment agent and this suited me very well.

In the second week of February 2018, I went for an interview at the big campus closer to Florida. Two days later the agent told me, I had done very well and the company wanted to hire me. I was not very sure if I wanted to go. The agent had indicated that I might start on Monday. On Friday morning I had an appointment to transport a load for a client in Pretoria East. The client then asked me if I could transport an urgent load to Zimbabwe that day. When you are self-employed you do not let work pass by. By early evening on Friday morning, I was on my way to Zimbabwe. On the Zimbabwean side, I really battled with tyre punctures as I was carrying a heavy load and I only reached Hwedza on Sunday morning. I then drove home to Zimre Park took a bath and drove to Chivhu to check on my piggery project and then drove back to South Africa.

After driving two nights without much sleep I ended up sleeping in Polokwane. Around 8am on Monday the agent phoned me and I was still in Polokwane. When I arrived in Pretoria she phoned me again and I told her that I was not sure if I wanted to take up the job offer. After discussing the issue further, I told her I would start work tomorrow. I took Gautrain to Park Station very early in the morning as I hate being late especially for work. There was no way, I would drive 130km every day to and from work and put that much mileage on any of my cars. I went to Reya Vaya bus station and they said they don’t have buses going there. I then went to Metro Rail wanting to buy a ticket to Florida and the ticket seller told me that the train was running late. My only option was to go to a mini bus taxi. Given my experience with taxi drivers, I avoid them like a plague. I arrived at work around 07:30am and waited for human resources. I had to sign a few declaration forms but there was no employment contract.I ended up discussing with one of the guys who had started a few weeks earlier who informed me that the bank had a huge backlog and had employed a lot of contract workers and more were on their way.

I would spend the day in the claims department with a kind gentleman who was showing me the systems. The agent also phoned me and confirmed that she had e-mailed me the employment contract and this was a bit strange why the agent and not the bank was giving me the contract. After work, I ran 3km to Florida station to catch the Metro Rail train to Park Station. I can write books about my experience with Metro Rail shocking service as I used it almost every day from Pretoria Central to Mamelodi and then run 5km to Pretoria East and vice versa in the evening from November 2017 until March 2018 when I was self-employed. The way Prasa runs the commuter train service is pathetic; they do not care about passengers as well as the safety of their staff. I feel sorry for tens of thousands of commuters from Mamelodi who are now suffering ever since Metro Rail suspended the service. Some of these commuters are students, unemployed, factory workers, security guards, domestic workers etc. who are mostly people who are on minimum wage. A six day week monthly taxi fare costs around R720 whereas  a monthly train ticket costs about R160 and for a person on a minimum wage or unemployed that is a huge difference. In January 2018 Menlyn Taxi association increased their fees by 25% and they will be increasing again due to high fuel prices you can see the that the inflation for poor people is much more than the official rate of inflation.

After arriving at Florida station I had to ask fellow passengers about the expected arrival of the train since metro rail do not operate like Gautrain and they never inform any passengers about anything and you have to rely on the information from fellow passengers. The train soon approached around 5pm and we arrived at Park Station around 5:30pm and I disembarked from the train and I started asking where I could get the Pretoria train and they pointed out that the train I had disembarked was actually the express train to Pretoria. I quickly rushed back. The train started moving and skipping a lot of the stations until we got to Kempton Park and it started stopping for longer periods without explanation. At a bushy area around Olifantsfontein it stopped for close to an hour and we just waited. I asked fellow passengers and they said that was the norm and even in the morning it would behave that way.  I only arrived in Pretoria after 9pm and by that time my phone battery had run out and maNyoni was worried about my whereabouts. luckily in Sunnyside businesses open very late e.g. our Shoprite store opens from 6am to 11pm Monday to Saturday.

I rushed to the internet cafe’ and printed the employment contract. I have been in the insurance industry now for 20 years and I am also currently a law student and one thing I understand in this life is a contract I don’t just sign anything. I remember some years ago when I had to sign a lease agreement I had to ask the land lord to amend a few clauses. Reading the employment contract from the first page onwards, I realised that it did not comply with the Basic Conditions of Employment Act. I then wrote an e-mail to the agent pointing all these deficiencies in her contract and also informed her that I would not be signing it and I was no longer interested in the position. I gathered if the bank really wanted my services they would employ me directly and not through some labour broker who had no clue and would get a large portion of my salary and for what? The next morning I still woke very early as usual and caught a train to Mamelodi to continue with my usual schedule instead of going to Florida

ZANU PF YAKARUMWA NECHEKUCHERA

I had already made up my mind that I was going to vote for Emmerson Mnangagwa but for MP would vote for an MDC MP since we do not have a credible independent MP in our constituency of Goromonzi South. That was before Chamisa came up with his manifesto that was anti Palestine people and I decided that I would vote for a Zanu-PF MP. It is very difficult to be objective once you have chosen a side but at times something has to give. The opposition has been making a lot of noise about the independence of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission and I never took it seriously until the postal voting in Bulawayo involving the police and the recent interview between Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa and Justice Priscilla Chigumba. I have also taken note of what Christopher Mutsvangwa the War Veterans Chairman said about them not allowing Chamisa to assume power should he win the 30 July 2018 election.

A question I asked myself after pondering over the answers by Justice Chigumba in the interview, is the ZEC chairperson or ZEC itself free from government control and by extension free from Zanu-PF control? I looked to my past accounting studies for the definition of independence:

Independence is: (a) Independence of mind – the state of mind that permits the expression of a conclusion without being affected by influences that compromise professional judgment, thereby allowing an individual to act with integrity, and exercise objectivity and professional scepticism; (b) Independence in appearance – the avoidance of facts and circumstances that are so significant that a reasonable and informed third party would be likely to conclude, weighing all the specific facts and circumstances, that a firm’s, or a member of the audit or assurance team’s, integrity, objectivity or professional scepticism has been compromised (CODE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT FOR CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS)


In the insurance industry when it comes to a tricky claims adjudication that may or not involve non disclosure of material facts presented before an insurance contract was entered into , we have a similar measure simply called a reasonable man test. In simple terms would mean, if you call an ordinary and neutral person and present the facts of the scenario to him or her what would their interpretation be of the question asked at inception stage and the answer provided e.t.c? Given the conduct of ZEC would one say they are independent and care about competence. My impression is that the conduct of ZEC does not inspire confidence and they are not truly independent of Zanu-PF. Hopefully with the advent of social media citizens will be able to continue exposing any weaknesses in their systems and their conduct and shining light on all the deeds being done in the dark.

The more Justice Chigumba tried to explain the Bulawayo Postal voting the more I became worried, she kept on saying it is the law and it got me thinking. For god’s sake the justice is different from other people who have presided over our election since 2000, people such as Mariyawanda Nzuwa and Tobaiwa mudede, she is actually a judge of The High Court whose job is to interpret laws and deliver impartial judgements. My understanding is that Zimbabwe is a constitutional democracy and hence we have constitutional sovereignty and not parliamentary sovereignty. In simple terms it means laws passed by parliament such as the electoral laws if they violate the constitution they can be declared as invalid by our courts. This insistence of, “ it’s the law “, sounds hollow as we have heard it before for example Slavery was legal, Apartheid was legal and Holocaust was legal.  As the Justice herself does she think the process is fair and what is she doing to bring about confidence in the whole process?

Let us remind ourselves how we got here. On the morning Saturday 18 November 2017, I landed in Harare to a different atmosphere. Finally Robert Mugabe was on his way out and there was no going back. In the afternoon, I also participated in the demonstration to State House and it was a time of great hope. Zimbabweans of all social classes and races came together that day to demand Mugabe’s resignation. People were carrying photos of Emmerson Mnangagwa and General Chiwenga. These were our heroes as they were finally helping us to get rid of Robert Mugabe. Millions of Zimbabweans were resigned to the fact that Mugabe would rule us until his death and his crazy wife Grace Mugabe would take over and there was nothing anyone could do so we thought until the generals rolled military tanks on the streets of Harare. There was so much goodwill for Mnangagwa and Chiwenga the heroes of the moment.

The biggest opposition to Zanu-PF rule has always been the economy so many people assumed that when Mnangagwa became president he would put together a unity government for a few years and sort out the economy. In true Zanu-PF arrogant style he retained much of the dead wood from Mugabe era in the cabinet and put back Chinamasa in finance and announced that the 2018 elections would go on as scheduled. Chinamasa and Mangudya the authors of the bond note were now back in charge. The decision to introduce bond notes was not a considered decision as it has created more problems for the economy and I still maintain that it must be scrapped (http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2017/12/why-zimbabwe-needs-to-discard-bond-note.html . With elections around the corner it means money has to be found for campaigning, money that the country does not have. We saw chiefs getting new cars, increments for civil service, funding ZEC and a lot of other spending by the government. The budget deficit is getting wider and we are back to the Mugabe way of managing the economy.

The transfer rate in Zimbabwe is almost 1:2 and prices are rising in tandem and it might get worse and one is reminded of the immortal words from the late Morgan Tsvangirai, “Zanu-PF can rig the election, but they cannot rig the economy”. Now Zanu-PF is panicking but the problem is of their making. For money to pour into the country the elections must be free and fair but on the other end a free election means that Zanu-PF might lose power. How can a person sleeping in bank queue day in and day out vote for Zanu-PF. Already the election is not really free when one considers that millions of Zimbabweans will not be allowed to vote unless they come back to Zimbabwe. ZEC already is showing the whole world that it is not impartial.  Over the weekend I had a twitter exchange with a comrade and the consensus was whoever wins must win outright in the first round because if this election goes to a run off, the military will remove their mask and there will be pain.

I have to say I do not feel sorry for Zanu-PF as they are clearly panicking but this is of their own making. All I have to say to about ED, akarumwa nechekuchera, he thought he held all the cards. If he wins a disputed election there won’t be meaningful investment both from the international community as well as the diaspora community. Who wants to pour their hard earned money in a failing economy? I was not going to vote for Chamisa as he is clearly not qualified but now these are not normal times. If he wins he must assume power and our country can move forward.

We must also learn from the University of Life

As usual I woke up early this morning after my 5 to 6 hours quota of sleep had been exhausted. I came across the above tweet and it got me thinking. With elections about three weeks away, Zimbo Twitter is mainly dominated by elections and it is very toxic. Its common knowledge that some of the most vocal accounts are for people out of the country who are not even registered to vote. People are relating to each other as if the world is ending on 30 July 2018. I am reminded about the following statement from my former chairman Mr Shingi Mutasa when I was still at Zimnat Lion Insurance company. He was quoted as following by Newsday just before the 2013 elections, “My feeling is that for the longest period as Zimbabweans we seem to have this wait-and-see attitude. We are now waiting to see what will happen during elections. In fact, this has been going on since 1980, we are waiting to see what will happen,” said Mutasa." I have gone through six elections. I don’t understand why we are waiting. The biggest challenge is about self confidence and self belief in our own totality. So as long as we are in that space, we will continue to have a challenge with liquidity.”



The best way to tell a story is from one’s experience. I used to be in the same boat as the marketing graduate mentioned in the tweet. In 2007 when I left Zimbabwe I had been a branch manager and the next position was to be an Assistant General Manager (AGM). The thinking that I had from school was that you work hard pass a course and be promoted. So when I joined the insurance industry at the end of 1997, I wrote my first and then only local insurance exams in March 1998 and passed them and then enrolled for courses leading to Associateship with the Insurance Institute of South Africa. By end of 2002, I landed my first management job that came with a company car. The following year I completed my Associateship and landed a bigger job with Zimnat Lion Insurance company as an underwriting manager with an even bigger car and other benefits such as a company paid contract phone.  In 2005, I completed my fellowship exams and it was a surreal moment in early 2006 when I attended the Society of Fellows meeting at the Harare Club with some of the Fellows of the Insurance Institute  who were mainly Managing Directors and General managers in the industry.

In 2006 I was transferred to Bulawayo as the branch manager and that job came with the use of a company house in the leafy suburb of Burnside. I had bargained and was allocated a Toyota double cab bakkie, it did not matter that according to company policy my grade did not qualify to get a vehicle with such as a big engine capacity. I had been offered a job by one of the competitors and as part of the counter offer the managing director had relented and given the vehicle I wanted. When I look back I had this feeling of entitlement. The company took care of all car maintenances, insurance, fuel etc. I would get 300 litres of fuel per month paid by the company. Now I only buy 60 litres per month. The company would buy newspapers for us and I would insist on getting both The Herald and The Chronicles even though they normally contain the same articles. My wife would remind me that we needed to start building our house in Harare and I did not agree as I could not see myself going to live in such a small house when I compared to the company house I was occupying.

On 23 August 2007, I collected my work permit from the South African embassy in Harare. The next evening we arrived in Sunnyside, Pretoria.  There is something that humbles you when you are a foreigner and maybe that explains why foreigners tend to make it in the same environment where locals struggle. Earlier that year when I was still in Bulawayo with no intentions of leaving the country, I had given a lift to a lady coming from Gweru to Bulawayo. The lady had left her job at a South African owned bank in Zimbabwe and was now working as a waiter in Pretoria and what she was being paid was four times what I was earning as a branch manager. So the next day after I arrived in South Africa I started enquiring on restaurant jobs as well as insurance jobs. Luckily on 31 August 2007, I got a job in the insurance industry. I was not worried that I would be starting as a clerk as I thought I would leave and then get a suitable job but that was not to be.

I started applying for management positions in the insurance industry and I learnt that most big insurance companies would not consider a foreigner due to employment equity policies. Also the insurance industry in South Africa does not prioritise qualifications, I have gone to a dozen interviews where they don’t even talk about your qualifications. I remember in 2008 and 2009 going for internal interviews and the feedback I would always get was, “you are not visible”. I just knew then that I would never get promoted as I would never change who I am just to get promoted.


 My first work permit was expiring in 2012 and there was no guarantee it would be renewed. The the labour laws in South Africa do not protect workers like in Zimbabwe.  I was not very secure in the job I was and learnt not to feel very comfortable. I learnt of a Zimbabwean engineer who had been retrenched with a very small retrenchment package, he had a home loan, car loan etc and was struggling. I started thinking about building our house in Zimbabwe and this would keep me awake most nights. The first few years, I regretted the decision I had taken to come to South Africa in the first place. I would visit Zimbabwe almost every month during a weekend. At times I would literally arrive in Harare on Saturday evening and then catch another bus back to Pretoria the same night. I would see how bad the situation was back home and I would come back and endure. With every trip to Zimbabwe, I started seeing opportunities and I knew that I had to prepare to go back home for good. Some of my friends went back during the GNU era when the economy had stabilized and we decided to postpone until we had built our main house. I also knew that I would not go back home and look for employment in Zimbabwe as the salaries are very low as compared to South Africa.

We started sharing flats with strangers in order to save money. I was fortunate that my job paid a performance based salary so I started working very hard, would work long hours, during lunch and most Saturdays. My team leader would tell me that I was earning more than her. In 2009, I decided a career change and started studying for an Accounting degree in order to qualify as a chartered Accountant.  I do not know how I did it, I would come home exhausted but whenever I thought that I deserved better than my current state, I would study well into the night. In 2014, I completed my accounting degree and I failed to get a training contract and it did not matter because what I learnt in my accounting degree is very valuable in the journey that I am pursuing.


By end of 2009 we had saved enough and I took leave, went home and I started building our house and in 2010 my family went back to stay at the house and finish the construction. After my family went back Zimbabwe, I started sharing even a room and I would send about 80% of my salary home every month. Most property  managers charge foreigners double deposits when renting  out apartments and you struggle to get it back when you move out and that drove me to want to buy our own home. In 2010 we applied and all the banks except one were willing to give us a loan on condition that we raise a big deposit. When I got my annual bonus in 2010 I paid the deposit and lawyer fees and at the same time we were finishing our cottage in Zimbabwe. In January 2011, I was so broke and I do not know how we made it through to payday

As a foreigner in South Africa it is very hard to get the first car loan, some Zimbabweans do stokvels (rounds) to  buy  each other cars for cash. In 2007, our company was still part of a bank and eventually there was a staff scheme and I still needed to raise a deposit to get the car. I would wonder if I had done the right decision to leave Zimbabwe. In July 2007, I had been driving a big Toyota bakkie and now in December 2007 I was driving a Toyota Tazz. Locals can finance more expensive cars and I later learnt that most of the cars were being bought on residual finance. A lot of the guys would never own those vehicles. I would feel sorry handling insurance claims for some of these guys because even after 6 years of financing the cars, they would still owe banks more than a hundred thousand Rands and the vehicle would not be worth even half of the debt. At the end of 2010 when I bought my first Mercedes Benz, the bank initially insisted that I pay the instalments within 2 years to match the expiry of my permit. At that time it seemed harsh but now I am happy it turned out the way it did.

In 2011, I had a new manager and he insisted that I act as a team leader and I did so for two months and how I hated that job. I did get very good reviews and I was asked to continue acting and I declined. To me the train had already left the station. That year for the first time, I had made it into the top 2% of the department and won the Top Perfomers' incentive overseas holiday. At the end of 2011, I went for a company sponsored holiday to Thailand with my wife. I would win the incentive two more times and came very close a few more times. I would feel sorry when up to about a half a dozen of some of the guys who had been promoted to team leader positions because they were 'visible' were now being demoted because they could not keep up with the work. All of them ended up resigning. I frequently get asked why I am not applying for management positions and now I have a good answer, "I am working on my visibility". The truth is that I am so grateful for the rejections I got whenever I applied for those internal management positions and it turned out to be the best thing that happened to me. My focus is now on Zimbabwe and every paycheck I get is helping me closer to financing my projects in Zimbabwe.

 Now I spend more time daily communicating with people back home in Zimbabwe getting updates on when are we putting tobacco seedlings in the ground, when next are we selling the next batch of pigs. I find that I now know exactly what I want to do with the rest of my life. I have written in my blog how well my personal business was doing in early 2007, that I even managed to buy an Isuzu bakkie for cash around the Easter holidays. My branch manager salary was then averaging R1 000.00 due to the massive and frequent devaluation of the Zimbabwe dollar then and the high inflation. My shops in rural Mutoko and Macheke, my minibus and my truck were giving me over R20 000.00 per week. So I resigned in May 2007 and started serving my three months notice. During that time the government ordered a price control blitz and I lost a lot of money. It is understandable that when I settled in South Africa to start over, I was bitter with the the Zimbabwe government. In 2008 I visited my relatives at their respective agricultural plots in Zimbabwe. I came back to South Africa and I said to my wife that although the economic situation in Zimbabwe was dire, I found my relatives to have better prospects than I had and how I envied them.



From my experience unfavourable situations we find ourselves in can either make us or break us. I believe as humans we are born to overcome obstacles in our path. What is normally needed is to change the way we see the world and at times people around us sees what are not seeing and tell us and all we need is to listen. The very first week, I started working in South Africa, African colleagues would come to me and tell me how much they admired Robert Mugabe about how he had empowered Africans by giving the best education and also giving them their land. During my accounting studies, many South Africans would remark to me that they struggled to complete their bachelor of commerce studies because they would not pass the accounting module in first year. In the group chats with fellow South African students, they would struggle with mathematics found in taxation, management accounting, partnerships, group statements. It is no coincidence that most of the private tutors are Zimbabweans. I would remark that all that mathematics they were struggling with was only basic O’Level Mathematics and not even A’Level Mathematics.
 
My experience of living in South Africa taught me many valuable lessons especially the importance of my Zimbabwean heritage. I had initially felt ashamed of coming to start from the bottom but I realised that I was blessed as a Zimbabwean, firstly I had better school education than most people around me and secondly back home, I had access to land back home as land gives a person dignity. Also because of my experience during the Zimbabwe crisis, I was  better prepared than the locals when the South African Rand began to devalue during the presidency of Jacob Zuma. We had lied to each other  that South Africa would never follow Zimbabwe. In 2015, 2016 and 2017 I found myself investing a lot of money in Zimbabwe just to hedge against the uncertainty in South Africa.

The problem I see with many young people leaving school in Zimbabwe is the lack of opportunities and inadequate career guidance. Even during my schooling days there was no proper career guidance. As I wrote my O'Levels in 1993, the career I only knew as better paying was being a medical doctor. I had to concentrate on Mathematics and Sciences and not subjects such as History and Geography that I was good at. It was only later in A'Level mathematics when we wrote the Old Mutual sponsored Mathematics Olympiads that I realised that there were careers such as Actuary. Later on I learnt of Chartered Accountants. In 1996 when my A'Level results came out and I had not made it into the University of Zimbabwe and really got depressed. At home in Marondera, we used to raise broiler chicken and I was sent by my mother to go and buy feed at Mashco and I saw this young man coming driving a brand new Nissan sunny box car. I asked him what he did for a living and he told me he was a salesman, some of my seniors at school had joined the tobacco industry and they were doing very well. When I started working as a temporary teacher in 1996, I saw guys with agricultural, BA, engineering degrees teaching etc also teaching and here I was thinking that people with degrees had made it in life.



I would then join the private sector the in mid 1997 and started to rise in my career. I have written about that in my previous blog    http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2017/09/what-i-have-learnt-in-my-21-years-of.html The advice I would give young people in Zimbabwe leaving school at the moment. If you do get a place at university or college, please take up the offer and pursue the course in whatever discipline it is. It is important to learn something that assists you to challenge as well as open your mind. Learn to relate to people of different backgrounds.  Look at people like Tendai Biti, Simba Makoni and Nkosana Moyo, these people did not study finance or economics initially at university, however even in our current polarized environment we can all agree that they make better finance ministers than the ones currently occupying the position.


I have read  how some now successful people in America after school with no clue on what to do next would first join the army for a few years. What I have learnt in life all experiences are valuable. Young people are very prone to peer pressure and the early years after school are very key, you rather occupy your time and do something progressive. Hopefully you meet mentors in your life, by having positive role models in life such as your church leaders, lecturers, bosses if you go for attachment, genuine business people in the community. Nowadays with technology you can be mentored by someone that you will never meet for example you can follow on Facebook or LinkedIn people such as Strive Masiyiwa, Bill Gates, Richard Branson etc. Mentors are very valuable in one's life as they influence your life towards a positive direction. If you get a chance to get any job, take it. I remember in 1993 after writing my O'Levels, I would sell bread in the township from a bicycle. Some of my peers looked down on me and I am glad I did that job for about 3 months before I went for A'Level.



When I look back to my working life so far, my mentoring started with my late mother and the values she instilled in me, I would later work for many companies and meet many bosses and they would mould me during coaching and  meetings. In late 2002 when I landed a job as an Account Executive at Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers, I was in charge of servicing VIP clients, I would go to companies such as OK Zimbabwe and meet the Managing Director and the Marketing Director, Air Zimbabwe General Manager, IDC general manager, Vice Chancellor at the University of Zimbabwe as well as some of the Deans, Professors and lecturers, Members of Parliament, Business owners, many executives within the SMM holdings at that time our company was part of the SMM group. I would just listen and learn for example most of these people though they had very good jobs but you would see them running successful private businesses on the side as well as commercial farms. As an underwriting manager, I would daily meet executives from insurance broking as well as Reinsurance Managers and at times would go for surveys and meetings at big companies such as Zimasco, Hwange colliery, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe etc.



Hopefully as youth gets enlightened they realise the truth that you must first change your thinking and how you see the world. Any positive change starts by you believing it first. One might have a marketing degree and they are looking for a job in their field, however the truth is that the economy is not performing as we all know. Why not try something else just for a while. In my example above when I was in Zimbabwe I would never consider working as a waiter but just by crossing the border to South Africa in 2007 I was already looking for a job as a waiter. The bottom line is to change one way of thinking.


I was born a son of a policeman in the then Rhodesia and my father would be moved around from Belingwe, Kwekwe starting firstly in Amaveni township in 1982 and then Mbizo township in 1989 and then Marondera in 1990. I also worked in Harare and Bulawayo before I left Zimbabwe and settled in Pretoria. I have been fortunate to have dealt with many people from diverse backgrounds and that helped to shape my perspective on life. Here is something I realised during my stay in Zimbabwe, if you go and look for a room to rent in the following townships: Amaveni, Mbizo, Rugare, Tafara, St Mary, Dombotombo, Nyazema (Macheke) etc. Chances are that your landlord originally came from Malawi. I had a discussion with my uncle many years ago and he told me that when he came back from Zambia in the 70s, he bought a house in Glen Norah and he then sold it as the wisdom was that a true African would rather have a house back in the village. In 1991 after my father's death both sides of the family were not happy with my mother's decision to buy a house in town as they expected her to come back to the village with the kids. Now when my cousins had to go to Harare to look for work, they had to rent rooms. This just reinforces that people coming from foreign countries will seek and utilize every opportunity that come their way more than the average local guy would do.



My wish for young Zimbabweans is that they get to think like foreigners do in host countries. I have this saying, "Zvirinani kuwomerwa nehupenyu kwegore rimwe uchigadzirisa zvinhu zvohupenyu hwese". Do what you think is uncomfortable and sort your life once and for all. Never feel defeated, use your brain. Remember the future of the country is literally in the youth's hands. Right now the roads in the resettlements are not being maintained because the rural councils do not have money. Previously those rural councils would get rates from white farmers, now the new farmers can't afford to pay rates because they are struggling themselves. Whenever I go home and meet farmers, I remind them that they are actually business people in their rights and they must not take their new plots as burial places. Right now the government of Zimbabwe can't pay decent salaries to its workers because the government does not get enough revenue as there is very little production from farming and other industries. People in Zimbabwe complain about unemployment but in the shop they don't buy local goods but they buy foreign goods.



In September 2017, I had been 10 years in my job. The previous month, I had worked extremely hard and got a very decent salary. Even though due to my qualification, performance and experience I should have been in an executive role if the career progression was done on merit, however I was living comfortably as long I kept on working extremely hard from month to month as I did not earn a guaranteed salary. At that time, I had invested over $20 000.00 in my piggery project in Zimbabwe and the project was not going very well not because of the economic conditions in Zimbabwe but due to poor management as I could only go to Zimbabwe every forty night on weekends. I decided to resign from my job and I finished serving my notice on 2 October 2017 and on that evening I took a bus to Harare and I would spend most of October in Zimbabwe. I had always told myself that I would go back to Zimbabwe for good once Mugabe had resigned and I knew my failures had nothing to do with Mugabe. I went back to Zimbabwe in October 2017 and spend weeks in Mutoko buying cheap pig feeds for about 30% of what I used to pay when I was sending money from South Africa.


One of the things I learnt is to always be objective and find out the truth on your own. For example a person who has not been to Zimbabwe in years and rely on the media, would be mistaken for thinking that Harare now resembles Mogadishu. However by going home to Zimbabwe frequently it helps me to find out the truth on my own. I also wrote in my previous blog how vital the right information is. 

I wish the best to all young people struggling to find their purpose in Zimbabwe.

For Africa to assume it rightfull place, all leaders must rise up

A question is posed in the MBA module I was studying this morning, “How much do leaders contribute to the success of their enterprises?” It got me thinking that leadership is required and found in all fields from politicians, businesses, charities, universities and down to a family unit where a father, mother or a first born child must show leadership to transform lives. This July we celebrate 100 years after the birth of one of the most consequential leaders of our generation, Tata Nelson Mandela. In his own words Nelson Mandela says something profound about leadership, “There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, and go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.” I am a Zimbabwean who has been in South African since 2007 and I can confidently say that despite current problems of inclusivity in South Africa, by large Nelson Mandela’s vision has been a success.

Nelson Mandela did his part and cannot be blamed for current problems in the same way as we can’t blame America’s founding fathers for the election of Donald Trump. Leadership is required in South Africa from politicians to improve the quality of education for all South Africans especially in the townships and rural areas. Leadership is required in the industry to stick to the spirit of employment equity as there will be no stability until the majority of the black population feels they are included. The question that all human beings ask before they act is, “What is in it for me?” If people believe they are part of the solution they won’t burn malls. In Zimbabwe there was a community project called, The Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (CAMPFIRE) where residents in rural areas would benefit from wildlife in their area. Community members would protect wildlife in their areas and it was a success.

 

On Sunday 1 July 2018, whilst going through my LinkedIn newsfeed, I came across a post by Bill Gates titled, My favourite commencement speeches of 2018. There was a snippet of a video containing a commencement address given by the Emmy Award–winning actor Sterling K. Brown at Stanford University. I ended up looking up the whole speech on you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_iM38_BbA. I was not disappointed after watching the whole 29 minutes of the video. My few takeaways from the speech: all of us must not be afraid to shine as when we shine the world can only benefit from it; we are all not self-made but are part of our community; no one religious group has a monopoly on wisdom.

 Leadership is very key in human development and I am reminded of the leadership provided by Allied leadership in World war 2 in order to stop the Nazi and one can think of leaders such as Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, Franklin D Roosevelt and also not forgetting the then South Africa’s then Prime Minister Jan Smuts. From time to time, I have had to reflect as a black African that if Adolf Hitler had prevailed all Jewish people, black people etc. would have been wiped out.  The world has become a better place due to the leadership we have seen from the fall of the Berlin Wall, FW De Klerk leading the National Party in political reforms in South Africa. I know as pan Africanists we do not want to acknowledge the leadership provided by FW De Klerk in this regard. De Klerk could have chosen the route of confrontation like what Benjamin Netanyahu has done for Israel.

 

I am a corporate man having worked 21 years in the private sector and 20 years in the financial sector. I firmly believe that the growth and economic transformation in Africa will come from private sector participation. My example of leadership in the business sector is Whitey Basson who led Shoprite Group from 8 stores into Africa’s biggest retail chain. Most of us will only read about Mr Basson in the press when they mention his salary and bonuses and of course that is not the full story. Shoprite now employs 148 000 people across Africa and its annual turnover is almost twice the annual budget of the government of Zimbabwe. Other notable leaders are Strive Masiyiwa who founded Econet Wireless, Aliko Dangote etc. Leadership is required at every level. My most notable leader in my life was my late mother and I have written about her in my blog. My other leaders include my O’Level mathematics teacher Mr Muzite and many more people that I have written about in my article http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2017/09/what-i-have-learnt-in-my-21-years-of.html. I also want to mention my current employer, the company was started 20 years ago and now it employs more than 3 000 employs across two continents.

 

I am passionate about Africa’s development. Whenever I got home to Zimbabwe and meet small scale farmers, I am always reminding them that they are business people in their own rights they must constantly be in production throughout the year and not only wait for the rain season.