ZIMBABWEANS IN SOUTH AFRICA WE ARE NOT BETTER BLACKS, WE ARE JUST DESPERATE

The situation has changed for foreigners since 2007 when I relocated to South Africa. In my first week, I went to three different interviews and I signed my employment offer letter on the 8th day of arriving in South Africa. At that time many corporates could still employ foreigners without IDs. After the 2008 financial crisis I started noticing changes as many corporates no longer employed foreigners without IDs.

Some companies will now only employ a person who became a citizen prior to 1994. The situation extends to many fields for example it is very difficult for a foreigner to secure articles training contracts that are required for a person to become a registered lawyer or to become a Chartered Accountant. The situation is different in the unskilled and semi-skilled sectors. It is no coincidence that Minister Tito Mboweni specifically mentioned waiters.

In Zimbabwe civil servants currently earn around R1 000.00. A farm worker in South Africa who earns a gazetted monthly wage of just over R3 000 is earning more than what the Zimbabwean government pays its doctors. Due to this desperation Zimbabweans will come and outbid South Africans in the unskilled and semi-skilled jobs such as truck drivers, domestic employees, supermarket and hardware workers, security guards, waiters, petrol attendants, casual construction workers, informal jobs etc.

As I went through social media comments after what Minister Mboweni said yesterday, many Zimbabweans were saying employers prefer Zimbabweans and Malawians for those jobs because they are hard workers. I don’t agree with that, before we had influx of foreigners South Africans were doing those jobs for years. The only issue now is that there are foreigners willing to accept unfavorable employment conditions and very low pay. In Zimbabwe when the economy was doing well especially in the 80s, Mozambicans and Malawians used to be employed mainly as farm workers, plantation workers, domestic workers and mine workers. The world over menial jobs are snapped up by desperate and mainly undocumented immigrants.

The gazetted minimum wage of domestic workers is over R3 000 per month yet thousands of Zimbabweans are employed in South Africa earning R1 500 and working very long hours and at times going for weeks without off days. If you go to a number of Spar shops the situation is the same. In many trucking companies especially those that do cross borders they mainly employ foreigners because they are the only ones desperate to accept harsh employment conditions of working long hours and being paid mainly commission.

In restaurants waiters are not paid a salary by their employers instead they survive on the tips paid by clients. I found out that if you included the tip when you swipe your card, the restaurant will not pay the waiter the full tip and now I carry cash to pay the waiter directly and then swipe the rest for the meal. Waiters also work very long hours. It’s no secret that very few South Africans will accept those exploitive employment conditions in the restaurant industry.

It is illegal to employ foreigners in the security guards industry, however there are loopholes that enable foreigners to be employed illegally in the industry at very low salaries and exploitive conditions. Some security companies employ foreigners for wages as low as R1 500 per month yet the official wages is almost 3 times that. Security guards are supposed to work 4 days, 12 hour shifts and rest for another 4 days. Foreigners are made to work continuously without taking any off days.

The Labour Relations Act specifically covers all employees including illegal immigrants, if you have time you can study the case Discovery Health Ltd v CCMA & others. According to section 23 of The Constitution everyone has the right to fair labour practices. Most illegal immigrants are not aware of their rights so they endure exploitation and by accepting rock bottom remuneration and exploitive employment conditions they disadvantage black South Africans who have to compete for such benefits thereby increasing resentment further. I once read a story of a Limpopo commercial farmer, who would employ illegal immigrants as farm workers and when it came to paying their wages, he would cause them to be deported without pay.

You begin to see why there is resentment towards foreigners in the townships and informal sectors. Poor South Africans doesn’t have much bargaining power because there are hundreds of thousands of undocumented African immigrants ready to replace them at less than 50% of the gazetted wages.

The resentment also creeps in to the middle class. In many big corporates they have to follow employment equity legislation, there is very few foreigners employed as compared to the sectors I mentioned above. Promotions in the corporate sectors also normally follow employment equity. Because there are very few immigrants it means a few immigrants also rise through the ranks of management. The biggest beneficiary of employment equity legislation has been White women and Indians and not Africans and Coloureds citizens.

About 10 years ago at work a Zimbabwean was promoted into management, I was passing by a black South African lady who was then our diversity chairperson. The words she used to describe that promotion was full of hate, she said the appointment didn’t count. I understand why she felt that ways,26 years after attaining political freedom, blacks and Coloureds are still not well represented in in most sectors of the economy except maybe in State owned enterprises and public service. It seems to me she would have stomached that appointment going to a white male instead of an African immigrant.

Last year there was an incident at University of Cape Town where Dr Shose Kessi a black Tanzanian lady was voted as a new Dean, a black South African Dr Lwazi Lushaba voiced his disappointment that a black South African lady had lost that appointment to a foreigner and only got 27% of the vote. Dr Lushaba was reprimanded and was accused as being Xenophobic. I think we need to look into that from another angle. The pace of transformation has been very slow in these previously white Universities and now this appointment now goes to African immigrants at the expense of black South Africans.

Around 2014-2015 during another phase of Xenophobic attacks, a workmate who is married to a Zimbabwean man was visibly upset coming from the balcony during her lunch break, she was mentioning her husband’s name saying where do they want me to put him. I then asked my then boss what had happened, it turned out that some of the workmates had mentioned that all foreigners must go back to their countries of origin. Being married to a Zimbabwean that lunchtime conversation made her quite upset.

In early 2013 whilst waiting for my permanent resident permit, my family had gone back to Zimbabwe and I was considering going back home for good if we did not get our permits. I would go to see my family in Zimbabwe every two weeks. On this Sunday afternoon I was given a lift by a gentleman from Musina to Pretoria. The guy was coming from inspecting his franchise store in Musina, he told me he was director in a government department. He started telling me how he hated Nigerians and every time he sees a project proposal with a South African partnering a Nigerian on his desk he doesn’t approve it. I figured out he hated other Africans as well.

South Africa is experiencing its worst unemployment levels. The unemployment of black youth according to Stats SA is over 53%, so it makes sense that it has to prioritise its citizens, now people openly blame foreigners for crime and taking away their jobs. Some accuse foreigners of taking South African women. I remember in the 2017 Xenophobic attacks, people marched from townships to Sunnyside were many foreigners stay, people were querying why foreigners stayed in the flats. Police had to intervene before violence broke out between foreigners and citizens.

Former Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba would periodically accuse African migrants for various crimes and he has a huge following from black South Africans who ordinarily wouldn’t vote DA. I expect that Mashaba’s political movement will be anti African immigrants and he will be continuing his rhetoric against Africans immigrants . As the ANC government fight to win back Gauteng Metros things are beginning to change. Many Zimbabweans who were employed as teachers by the government has had their contracts terminated.

There is talk of putting quotas on the number of foreigners who can be employed by trucking companies, restaurants, Spar Shops, commercial farms. There is push to have Spaza shops owned by citizens. There was talk of amending Refugees laws to take away the right to work from asylum seekers. The outlook for African immigrants is very bleak until the South African economy starts to grow again. I hope the South African government can still renew the 200 000 Zimbabwean special dispensation permits that are expiring next year. The current economic situation cannot afford to absorb such a large number back into the system.

No doubt Zimbabwean migrants are watching all this with a lot of uneasiness. Some will hope for the best, however hope is not a strategy. People need to plan. For a long time Zimbabweans in South Africa seemed to think the situation in Zimbabwe doesn’t affect them and have not been going home to vote, that must change.http://kanyokad.blogspot.com/2019/08/as-zimbabweans-do-we-deserve-our.html
 

IS ZIMBABWE NOW A DE FACTO PROVINCE OF SOUTH AFRICA?

Today you can drive from Port Elizabeth, over Orange River, past Bloemfontein and arrive in Johannesburg without needing a passport. A lot of people don’t know that those were separate colonies (countries). If Smuts had not succeeded you would have crossed 3 borders and needed a passport. After successfully bringing the 4 colonies as one country, in 1922 Jan Smuts tried to bring in Rhodesia as the 5th province of South Africa and in a referendum a narrow majority of 2 785 white Rhodesians refused.

Years after Apartheid became official policy in South Africa, in Rhodesia the government of Ian Smith followed a similar policy to Apartheid when it came to segregation of Europeans, blacks, coloureds and Indians. South Africa was the main trading partner of Rhodesia and is still the main trading partner of Zimbabwe. In 1976 whilst Ian Smith’s government with the support of South Africa was fighting a bitter war against guerilla movements led separately by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe. Prime Minister John Vorster decided to abandon Rhodesia, many white Rhodesians call it the great betrayal as they felt that it turned the tide against the racist government of Rhodesia in the war.

After independence in 1980, tens of thousands of white Rhodesians trekked to South Africa. Thousands of Ndebele men kept going to South Africa mainly to seek employment and to run away from the Gukurahundi Massacre of the 80s. After the chaotic land reform from 2000 and the accompanying economic decline in Zimbabwe, tens of thousands of skilled Zimbabweans started applying for work permits to relocate to South Africa.

When I went submit my work permit around June 2007 at the South African embassy in Harare, there were hundreds of people in the queue. I saw guys that I had worked with 10 years before when I was a teacher. Tens of thousands more came on travellers visas and started working mainly as waiters and farm workers as undocumented immigrants. I remember a lady I gave a lift in Gweru early 2007 who had quit her job as a bank teller at Stanbic Bank and was working as a waiter in Pretoria and was earning around R4 000.00. My salary then as a branch manager was equivalent of R1 000.00.

After the 2008 election, the violent election run off, the economic crisis in Zimbabwe hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans flocked to South Africa. I remember in 2008 driving from Beitbridge crowds walking along N1 between Musina and Louis Trichardt. During the Cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe, government of Thabo Mbeki stopped deporting Zimbabweans that time and they admitted sick Zimbabweans in hospitals in Musina in order to control the spread of Cholera. The Zimbabwe Special dispensation permit was unveiled by South Africa and over 200 000 were issued.

Now Zimbabwe depends almost entirely on South Africa, over a million Zimbabweans in South Africa send money and groceries to Zimbabwe for their families. Zimbabwe relies on electricity from Eskom to help plug the shortages. The Zimbabwean government is at the mercy of South African government and not the Chinese as some think.

Do you agree that Zimbabwe is now a de facto province of South Africa ?

JOHANNESBURG PARK STATION STORIES - A LESSON IN HUMILITY

I am scared of visiting Park Station because I always run into someone from my past. In 2008, MaNyoni was going back home to Zimbabwe and I drove her to Park Station to catch a bus to Harare. As we stood in the queue waiting for her to board the bus, a former workmate from Zimbabwe greeted me and with pity in his eyes said, “Oh I heard you are now working in a call centre”.

We had been managers together in Zimbabwe, I was on a higher level than him. He told me that his contract in Angola had ended and he was on his way back to Zimbabwe. At our company they were recruiting and after sending their CVs to recruiters, two of my former workmates from Zimbabwe had already come for interviews and one had started his job. I couldn’t ask this guy in front of me to send me his CV as it was clear that working in the call centre was beneath him. The truth was in the call centre I now earned 18 times more than what I earned in Zimbabwe as a middle level manager.

After he was gone MaNyoni said, “ Akunzirwa tsitsi wena”(He felt pity for you). The following year when we built our house in Zimbabwe MaNyoni teased me and said, “ look what the little money from the call centre has done for us”. A year after that when I bought my first Mercedes she said the same. The moral of the story is never look down upon someone based on your pre-conceived ideas. There were many times I wanted to change jobs and I have always been told, we can’t afford you.

Society has taught us to look down on people based on their titles and appearances and we don’t know how much we miss out. When I worked in Zimbabwe many people did not know how powerful my PA/ secretaries were as their opinions mattered so much to me and I saw the same with my bosses’ PAs and I always showed them respect. Never disrespect anyone, another day in the supermarket I was paying for groceries at the cashier and after greeting her, she asked me if I knew that if I bought two of these items I would get 50% off. I thanked her and she waited patiently as I went back to the shelves.

Many people have domestic employees who cook for them and take care of their kids, if you treat them as animals imagine how they will treat your kids some who can’t even talk yet. Some of the wisest people, I have met did not go to school for example my maternal grandfather. When I grew tobacco in Zimbabwe in the 2016-2017 farming season the people I relied on could barely write their own names but they had so much knowledge and I learnt a lot from them, those men and women are walking encyclopedias on tobacco farming

TRAVEL DIAIRIES- AN UNFORGETTABLE HOLIDAY BULAWAYO, HWANGE NATIONAL PARK AND VICTORIA FALLS 2002

The second holiday was in September 2002. Our white wedding was on 14 December and two weeks after that we were expecting our first child. We decided to travel to Bulawayo, Hwange and Victoria Falls before the wedding and the baby. The day of the travel, I got a lift to Murewa to meet my manager.

At the end of 2001 I had opened a shop in the village of Bokwe where my mum was born. When the neighbouring white commercial farmer in Virginia, Macheke was removed during land reform I had taken over the farm store at Paradise farm (known as Masvaisvai farm to locals). I now had two stores.

We boarded a Bulawayo bound bus in the afternoon behind Sheraton hotel. I grew up in Kwekwe in the 80s and most school holidays we would take the Tauya Bus to Harare and then Shiriyekutanga buses to Jekwa, Murewa. One of the Shiriyekutanga drivers was a relative sekuru January Nyawata. All the buses from Kwekwe to Harare charged $7 except Tauya which charged $6, incidentally I learnt my first big English word “Emergency” in Tauya coach & Shiriyekutanga buses around 1983 🙈.

We got to Gweru and the bus driver said hr was not proceeding to Bulawayo, we got cramped in a minibus tax. The conditions in the taxi were not favorable to a pregnant MaNyoni. We arrived in Bulawayo around midnight and hired a taxi to Holiday Inn. I love Bulawayo a lot. Every two years the insurance industry held an annual sporting weekend in Bulawayo and I never missed any one of those company paid holidays👌🏿. I will write a book about those Bulawayo trips one day.

Around mid morning we went to Renkini looking for buses to Hwange and we were directed I think to then New Nkulumane Complex. We boarded a Kukura Kurerwa Volvo bus. We were dropped off on the road leading to Hwange airport. We boarded the game view Toyota Landcruiser to our lodge. I never missed any one of those game drives👌🏿

Early one morning close to Hwange camp main gate, I saw a pack of wild dogs and within five seconds they were gone. Years later we visited Kruger National Park and I never saw as many animals as I did in Hwange. Our lodge was nearer a water hole and hundreds of elephants would come by👌🏿

On the second day one of the families from South Africa was going back,there were only 6 chalets, we drove with them to Hwange airport. The family had come with their own plane. A fun fact the runway at Hwange National Park at 4600m is one of the longest in the world nand I was told it can accommodate the NASA Space shuttle on the way back to earth.

After 4 days in Hwange in September 2002, we were dropped off at Cross Dete and got transport to Victoria Falls. Victoria Falls has the same effect on me like Durban, Phuket or Cape Town, I will never get bored of those places no matter how many times I visit them.

For the first two nights we stayed in a self-catering two bedroom at a flat at a place called Tshulu Tsha Nabe. For the last two nights we checked into The Kingdom Hotel. I have since stayed in dozens of hotels but Kingdom Hotel remains my best ever hotel👌🏿 Every time I visit Vic Falls I go to The Kingdom hotel.

After four nights in Victoria Falls we decided that we would come back come back the following year. In November 2002, I started a new job as a junior manager and the job came with a company car a Mazda 323. Even then there were fuel shortages in Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe Sun hotels in Victoria Falls had advertised that they were providing fuel.

We drove from Harare and stayed at Rainbow Hotel in Bulawayo. They were busy renovating Rainbow Bulawayo. It seems the hotel had double booked our room because later that night other people opened the door with their card and luckily we had blocked the door from inside with that metal blocker. There was fuel in Bulawayo and we refueled and drove to Victoria Falls. After spending six days in Victoria Falls we approached the hotel wanting to buy fuel and there was none. Luckily I had carried a 20 litre of petrol.

We managed to drive slowly from Victoria Falls back to Bulawayo. I estimate that we only had 27 to 30 litres. For that journey. We stayed at Rainbow Bulawayo again and got fuel back to Harare. When I became Bulawayo branch manager from 2006-2007 I was in charge of the agency in Victoria Falls and Hwange so I would drive to Victoria Falls.

TRAVEL DIARIES- OUR FIRST HOLIDAY AS A MARRIED COUPLE, PUMPKIN HOTEL KOTWA 2001

I am about to go on leave so I am thinking of holidays especially a Zimbabwe holiday. After we got married in 2001, our first ever holiday was in Kotwa about 20kms from Nyamapanda. We boarded a Mazarura Bus at Mbare. Before Murewa I was pointing to MaNyoni at Kambarami Secondary School, the last school I taught in 1997. On a clear day you can see the school from the highway.

We got to Murewa Centre our home town, in 1997 during my teaching days, I rented a room from Mudhara Ndorochena. We continued with our journey past Zhombwe hill. We can see Zhombwe from our village near to Jekwa. The Shiriyekutanga bus would turn right from the highway towards Mukarakate and Macheke.

After Suswe pass I pointed the direction of Chifamba Secondary School I taught there in 1996, that road continues to Benson Mine and to Mazowe River. I have relatives from my father’s side in Benson Mine and the rest of the relatives are still in Tome and Katsukunya in Mutoko.

We booked in at the Pumpkin Hotel. The hotel was still very new and was smart. I showed MaNyoni the then new government office complex where I got my very first job as a temporary teacher in 1995. We also visited Nyamapanda border post. Then I was an avid reader of The Reader’s Digest and I won a Reader’s Digest Camera around 1999, all these photos were taken with that camera.

TRAVEL DIARIES- OUR TRIP TO MUTARE AND VUMBA MOUNTAINS 2003

Towards the end of 2003 we decided to visit Vumba Mountains. I can never do justice to the beautiful scenery in Manicaland. I remember in 2002 when my cousin’s husband died in Honde Valley. We took the overnight train from Harare to Mutare. 8 years before in 1994 when I was accepted for A’Levels to Mutambara High School Chimanimani, I had taken the same train journey from Marondera to Mutare and then the B&C bus to Chimanimani. I got to Mutambara High School and it reminded me of Nhowe Mission and I decided there and then that I would not enroll at this school and came back to Mutare that evening in time for the train back to Marondera. I told my mum that I would look for another school.

When we went to Tsano Mwatse’s funeral we had taken a minibus taxi from Mutare to Honde Valley. We got to the village before the burial. I was told that Mozambique was within a walking distance. We buried my brother in law on the side of the hill in fact most of the land in the area is hilly. I was the eldest male relative from our side so I represented my late uncle Mr Roni Dombodzvuku a former soldier of The Federation of Rhodesia who was posted in Northern Rhodesia and only came back to Zimbabwe from Zambia around 1981.

On this trip to Vumba I drove past Christmas pass and down towards Mutare, every time I drive into Louis Trichadrt it reminds me of driving into Mutare. In Mutare we asked for directions to Vumba and proceeded to our lodge. Some say the scenery in Vumba is similar to Scotland. The view is amazing. I had a miserable time because I was suffering from Hay fever as the plants in that area were affecting me. We stayed at a self catering 2 bedroom flat.

On the third day we checked out of the accommodation, my Mazda 323 struggled to go up Vumba Mountain on the way back to Mutare. I decided that one day when I have a more powerful car I would make the trip again, 17 years later I am still to make the trip.

TRAVEL DIARIES: OUR FIRST TRIP TO MASVINGO AND BIRCHENEOUGH BRIDGE EASTER 2004

Easter 2004 we decided to visit Masvingo for the first time. We drove from Harare and looked for accommodation and booked a room at Flamboyant Hotel. At that time Flamboyant hotel had an association with Protea Hotel group from South Africa. Our room was very modern and comfortable. I saw E-TV channel from South Africa for the very first time. Later that year we bought Fortec decorders that enabled us to watch SABC 1 to 3 and ETV👌🏿

We drove around Masvingo and we stopped at the then Wimpy Restaurant on the petrol station on the way to Beitbridge, we then turned left towards Morgenster Teachers’ College and stopped at a Spar Supermarket. The following morning we then drove to Great Zimbabwe. I had seen ruins before when we had visited Tsindi Ruins closer to Theydon in Marondera. It was around 1993 at Nyameni Secondary when the school trip was organized.

Great Zimbabwe is huge and it is mind boggling how they could have built such a massive structure without cement. At great Zimbabwe I got the same feeling I felt when I later visited Matopo National Park as well as the grave of Cecil John Rhodes. After spending an hour or so we moved on to Lake Mutirikwi. For me this lake appears to be a smaller version of Lake Kariba.

After spending 3 days in Masvingo we decided to drive past Mutare. We took the road past Nyika Growth Point and stopped at Birchenough Bridge and marveled at the giant steel structure. We proceeded along Mutare Road and I almost had an accident at Nyanyadzi when a cow just ran across the road, I struggled to stop my double cab bakkie which did not have ABS. We proceeded on the way to Mutare. I think Mutare is the most beautiful city in Zimbabwe.

After stopping a bit in Mutare we proceeded to Harare and arrived home around 7pm🙏🏿

TRAVEL DIARIES- OUR FIRST TRIP TO INYANGA MOUNTAINS IN NOVEMBER 2004

Photo of Troutbeck Inn from www.troutbeckinn.net

We love traveling and we had planned three main trips this year, the first trip was three weeks drive during mid year school break from Pretoria, Harare, Malawi, Da es Salaam, Zanzibar, Mombasa, Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali, Goma, Lusaka and back via Livingstone, Bulawayo. I enjoy long drives 👌🏿The second trip was a return flight to Singapore and then road transport to neighboring Malaysia and back to Singapore. The last trip was going to be a cruise for our 19th anniversary as demanded by the boss. Life happens we hope for better days🤷🏿‍♂️

Anyway here is what I remember of our first trip to then Zimsun Troutbeck Inn hotel in Nyanga. Troutbeck Inn is one of my favorite hotels, I rate it as being number three after Victoria Falls hotel and Kingdom hotel. We booked two nights for November 2004 for MaNyoni’s birthday. MaNyoni was expecting our second son Isheanesu who was born in December 2004.

On the day of the trip, I was supposed to leave Harare around 12 midday, unfortunately then as an underwriting manager at Zimnat Lion Insurance I was preparing the tender for the insurance for Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The Central bank had decided to insure directly and not to go through an insurance broker. I worked on the quotation for weeks with the support of my boss I think our AGM then was AZ Shoko. For days I worked late with my secretary Sandra Chipunza in order to finalize the tender document.

On the day of the trip I only left Harare very late. I would have wanted to travel early so that we would see MaNyoni’s high school, the Catholic run Kriste Mambo High School were she attended from form 1 to form 4. MaNyoni talks a lot of her high school years at Kriste Mambo. I am also stuck with dietary preferences she picked up as a border 🙈

During that time I had 10 shops from Rukanda on Mutoko road, then in Hoyuyu resettlement areas of Mutoko and the some in the new resettlement areas of Virginia Macheke. My last store was at Rufaro farm about 10kms from Macheke GMB next to Harare Mutoko road (Timber Mills), so many Sundays and Saturdays I would drive to Rusape to buy stock at Jaggers Wholesalers and also use the ATM at Standard Chartered Bank Rusape. I had never driven on the Nyanga Road.

Our village closer to Jekwa School in Murewa is on the borders of Mutoko and Macheke. From our villages places like Chiendambuya, Tanda, Mayo in Manicaland is within a walking distance. In the 80s the Shiriyekutanga bus would pass through our village to Virginia Macheke and Chiendambuya. I am told the white farmer at the neighboring Paradise farm banned the bus from passing through his farm as people were stealing from him and then transporting the goods with the bus. My grandmother’s younger sister who is married to the Majiras moved from our village to Chiendambuya in late 80s and I used to visit them before they left.

Growing up in Murewa we would herd cows in the Dzete Hill ranges and from there you can see the imposing Inyanga Mountains. We got to Nyanga town very late around 9pm. We got directions to Troutbeck Inn Hotel. My company issued Mazda B2200 Double Cab had a problem blocking fuel. When I started climbing the steep Mountains, we moved very slowly.  We got to our hotel just before midnight. We went in to the reception to check in.

As we were being shown to our room the floor was wet outside from the rain. MaNyoni slipped and fell on the floor, I was so sure that she was going to have a miscarriage, she assured me that she was fine. The next morning we went for breakfast and drove to the World View, the highest point in Zimbabwe👌🏿 We then drove to Town, went briefly into the national park and then drove to Juliasdale to see the Montclair Hotel. We drove past the potato farms and the apple trees plantations.

On the last day we left around 10am and I was able to see Kriste Mambo school for the first time. Our bid for Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe was successful and we got their big motor fleet and one or two classes of Insurance. I had the pleasure of organizing Insurance seminars for RBZ staff at our sister company Cresta Hotel Jameson.

Towards the end of 2005, the Insurance Institute of Zimbabwe annual conference was held at Troutbeck Inn, I attended and I booked my accommodation at Montclair Hotel. Last year we wanted to visit Nyanga again but given the fuel situation back home in Zimbabwe and the fact that my ML350 is a real guzzler we decided against the trip. I hope we will visit Nyanga as one trip covering Chimanimani ( I still want to climb the Chimanimani mountain after reading Peter Godwin’s Biography-Mukiwa), Vumba Mountains & Inyanga Mountains again.

TRAVEL DIARIES- MY LAKE KARIBA HOLIDAYS

photo from Pindula News website

One of my most memorable holidays in Zimbabwe was the Lake Kariba house boat cruise. I have had the opportunity of doing it twice , that was in 2003 and 2005🙏🏿. All of these two trips were corporate sponsored events. Around June 2007 when I was serving my three months notice as the Bulawayo Branch Manager I was invited for another Kariba trip, I turned it down I felt it was not right to go when I was leaving shortly after that.

My first trip in 2003 I was a junior manager at Zimbabwe Insurance Brokers. The drive from Harare at over 300kms is not very long. I had previously travelled to the town of Chinhoyi in 1995 from Marondera. In my final A’Level year at Marondera High School I ran anything from 400 metres relay and above. We had travelled to Lomagundi College for Athletics.

Late in the afternoon we arrived in Kariba town. Kariba dam looks like an ocean. We got into the houseboat then owned by SMM Holdings. At that time our parent company Zimre Holdings was a subsidiary of the then Mutumwa Mawere owned SMM Holdings. We were being hosted by NicozDiamond Insurance Company also a sister company within the Zimre Holdings. I had worked for Diamond Insurance Company from 1999 to 2000 before the merger with NICOZ so our hosts were previously my workmates.

The second trip in 2005, I was now working as an Underwriting Manager at Zimnat Lion Insurance company and our host was Zimre Reinsurance Company. In the second trip it was a few days after I had negotiated for a 2002 Toyota Hilux 3.0 KZTE double cab. I had got an offer to join Altfin Insurance Company as their Bulawayo Branch Manager. I negotiated a counter offer with the MD and I got the Toyota Bakkie. It was the first time taking the Bakkie for a long distance.

Late afternoon on Friday we got into the houseboat. We started sailing around the dam. Kariba is in a national park, and on the shores of the lake there is wildlife roaming about. You see a lot of fishing boats from both Zambia and Zimbabwe that mainly catch Kapenta fish and there is a number of Lake Harvest fish farms on the dam. The boat then sails far away from the town for the night.

The sailors will tell you after the boat anchors that around the waters there are a number of crocodiles around. Early in the morning we take speed boats for fishing and move towards the rivers that are tributaries to Lake Kariba. In the background there are the famous Matusadona mountains.

In the evening we then sail towards the town of Kariba and one gets a feeling that you are coming from an ocean towards the shore. The following day you get to tour Kariba dam wall, the Catholic Church at Kariba Heights built by Italian workers who built the dam wall as well as the commemoration of all the European workers who perished during the construction of the dam wall. If you have nerves of steel you can also race your car down from Kariba heights. Of course there is the night life in Kariba. Before leaving Kariba you go and buy fish to take with back to Harare.

I would recommend everyone to tour Lake Kariba at least once in your life.

TRAVEL DIARIES- Our family road trip to Cape Town via N2 in March 2019

It is now exactly a year after our trip to Cape Town. This was our second trip to Cape Town, the first one was during Easter of 2012. I had always wanted to do the N2 trip to Cape Town. We initially wanted to do the trip in December 2014 and we postponed.

On the 16th of March 2019, we left Pretoria just before 5am, we filled up petrol at the Engen garage. I normally prefer to fill-up at Shell garages, however due to the fact that only fuel purchased at Engen garages was the only one that qualified to earn E-Bucks through FNB card, I had no option but to use Engen garages throughout our trip.

From Pretoria we drove along N4 passed Witbank and Middelburg and turned right towards Emerlo. We stopped a bit at the McDonalds in Ermelo and after eating breakfast we got onto N2. Along the way we saw the huge Eskom power stations. We stopped a bit in Piet Retief and continued driving along N2 towards Pongola. We drove about 100kms closer to Swaziland border.

After Pongola we started seeing massive sugarcane plantations. We continued driving towards Richards Bay. I saw game parks on our left. We arrived in Richards Bay in the afternoon and we went to see my brother for only two hours and started braaing as I wanted to get to Durban before 5pm so that I could collect my race number and shirt for the KZN Deloitte Challenge Marathon that was being held the following morning.

After the braai we hit the N2 again. I needed to put on more petrol but there was no Engen garage closer by along the N2, we stopped at a Shell garage. We got to Durban around 4pm and I rushed to the Ampitheatre to collect my race pack. We went to check into a family room at Hilton Hotel. Hilton Hotel is one of the most comfortable hotel we have stayed in followed closely by Radison Blue Hotels.

The following morning I woke up around 3am took a bus organized but the race organizers to Ballito. The race started around 5:30am and we ran 42.2kms along the Indian Ocean back to Durban. The weather was hot and very humid and not very good conditions for running fast. I managed to finish in about 4hours 10 minutes. I walked to the hotel to rest.

On Monday we checked out from the hotel around 9am and looked for an Engen garage next to the harbor, we filled up. We got onto N3 and then took the left off ramp to N2. We drove along for a few hours. I disobeyed the car’s gps and we drove about 50kms towards Port Edward and we had to make a U Turn and stopped a bit at the mall. We then followed N2 for hours. We drove past Kokstad and later on stopped in Mthatha.

Having worked in the motor insurance claims call centre for over 10 years I had an idea of the facilities in Mthatha. What I had in mind was exactly what I saw. Mthatha reminded me of rural towns like Murewa and Mutoko although it was a much bigger town. The town is more crowded and is different from other towns of almost similar size such as Mokopane etc.

Having read Nelson Mandela’s autobiography Long Walk to Freedom three times since 1996 some of the names I saw on N2 were familiar to me. Almost every rural house I saw along the road had a water tank. After passing a huge river I was stopped by a traffic cop and he asked for my driver’s licence in Xhosa, I showed him my Zim licence and he wished us a safe journey. We arrived in East London around 6pm and checked into our rooms at Road lodge and I went out to look for dinner. In the morning we drove into the city center. East London reminded me of downtown Harare in the mid 90s.

We drove to the beach and I was not pleased when I saw sewerage flowing in the road about 300 meters from the beach. We looked for an Engen garage and filled up petrol. We then hit the N2 again for more than 100kms and stopped at a Spar store in a small town. When we got to Grahamstown we debated about stopping and seeing the town including Rhodes University and the consensus was no.

We hit the N2 again and about 80kms from Port Elizabeth we joined a familiar road. In November 2018 we had driven along N1 past Bloemfontein and Colesburg turned left towards Port Elizabeth for MaNyoni’s birthday. We drove into PE and stopped at the massive Super Spar closer time the beach and bought lunch. We then hit the N2 again. Along the way we saw these massive wind turbines and I stopped to marvel at these turbines.

We continued driving and went past Knysna. Throughout my existence, I had never seen a town as beautiful as Knysna👌🏿. We got to George around 5pm and we checked into family room at French International Lodge. We really enjoyed our stay at the lodge. The following morning after breakfast we drove the final leg to Cape Town past Mossel Bay. As we descended from the mountain, traffic was at a standstill before Paarl. We stopped for about 3 hours and we later saw burnt out tyres. Community members had been protesting for municipal services and they had blocked the N2.

We got to Cape Town around 4pm and drove to Century City. We had booked a 2 bedroom self-catering luxurious fully furnished unit at Axis Luxury Apartments. We were only about 1km from the magnificent Canal Walk Mall. We stayed there for 4 nights and our boys really liked this place. We toured Cape Town, this was our second trip in Cape Town. Cape Town is a beautiful city. We visited Sea Point and all surrounding places. We also visited University of Cape Town and the Table Mountain.

On the 5th day we left Cape Town around 5am and took the N1 stopped in Beaufort West filled up at Engen Garage, Colesburg and Bloemfontein and filled up again at Engen arriving in Pretoria after 7pm. The following day I took a bus to Harare. The following month FNB only awarded me around R100😳E-Bucks points after filling up petrol of over R10 000 and all the purchases we made during our holiday. I did query with the bank and after a week they said those were the correct points. Anyway I have since stopped using Engen Garage and I am almost done closing all my FNB linked accounts.

OVERCOMING POVERTY- YOU NEED PEOPLE TO BELIEVE IN YOU

https://youtu.be/w1AfxNwjz-o

Towards the end of 1996, when I was doing temporary teaching in Mudzi, I would listen to this song Nzombe Huru by Leonard Zhakata many times. It was as if this song was sung specifically for me. From the first time I got my first salary no one had to tell me that I had to help my mother raise my 4 younger siblings and my nephew. I just knew that it was my responsibility.

Our life of poverty has become worse after the death of my father in 1990. My father had left a small Insurance policy naming me and my mother as the two co-beneficiaries. My portion of the insurance payout as a minor then was being administered by the Master of High Court in Harare. At the beginning of each year my mother and I would visit Harare with school fee invoices and quotations of school uniforms. My mother would get quotations of many pairs of uniforms for me. When she got the cheque I would get one or two pairs and rest of the money would she would also get uniforms for my sisters and brother.

The funds from the insurance policy ran out in 1994 when I was doing form 5. 1995 was particularly tough for us as my youngest sister also started high school. Three of us were in high school and my mother couldn’t cope, she went to the department of social welfare. The welfare official told her she was lucky because 1995 was an election year so the Zimbabwean government would be funding the department of social welfare. My school fees and my A’Level Cambridge examination fees as well as my sister’s school fees and her O’Level examination fees were also paid by the government🙏🏿

The distance from our home in Yellow City to my school at Marondera High School was almost 6.5kms . My sister Phillipa was starting form 1 at Catholic run Nagle House next to my school. My eldest sister was in form 4 at Nyameni Secondary School were I had also gone for my O’Level. My mum could only afford bus fare for Phillipa. I would eat in the morning walk almost 6.5kms to school spend the day not eat anything and walk back home and only eat in the evening and go to Dombotombo Library.

Some days I didn’t think I would escape poverty. My mother never got tired of telling me that I would become someone. High School was also tough because of the judgement from my classmates. One day one of the girls a boarder confronted me in the Biology Laboratory and told me how disappointed she was of me as she felt I was not taking school work seriously. I could have told her if I was fortunate like her to walk only 200metres to the dormitory and eat at least four meals a day maybe my grades would match hers.

Another boy in the physics class whom I met in the Chemistry and Mathematics classes told me to my face that I was a loser and I would never amount to anything in life. During mid year exams in 1995 I didn’t pass any subject. I told my mum I was going to our village in Murewa nearer Jekwa School. My cousin was building a store at Janhi in Mutoko about 10kms from our village. I had done building studies at O’Level. I worked for exactly one week and I demanded my money about $50. My cousin begged me to stay on and I said no.

I went to the shops in Jekwa and bought paraffin for the lamp, pens, exercise books, toiletries such as Aim tooth paste etc. My parents came from neighboring villages. My maternal grandfather Mr Tapson Kagoro was now staying alone, there was a hut that my cousin had built. I stayed with my grandfather and I would walk about 2kms to my paternal grandmother to eat whatever she was eating that day. Most of the time we ate vegetables without cooking oil. My favorite dish was Mabumbe. You roast pumpkin seeds and then grind them in a dura and you build them into meat balls and they will taste like mince meat/meat balls.

I studied day and night, one day I walked in the hut and I saw a snake, I killed it and I continued staying in that hut. When I left school we had not finished the syllabus especially the options and I studied those options on my own and taught myself. They say any experience in life is important, years later when I joined the insurance industry and started studying towards the Associateship and Fellowship qualifications I did not struggle at all and the same when I studied for my accounting degree and also embarked on my LLB and MBA studies, I did not struggle.

I left the village and went back to Marondera in time for the Chemistry and Biology practical examinations. I managed to pass all my 3 subjects. I didn’t get into University so I started looking for a job for 8 months. I tried applying to banks etc. Beginning of September 1996, I visited Ministry of Education Kotwa District offices about 20kms from Nyamapanda Border Post, the district education officers wanted a person who had passed A’Level Mathematics and O’Level Building Studies to be a relief teacher at Chimukoko Secondary School. Of all the people who were queuing for teaching jobs, I was the only person with those Moses qualifications. My time had come.

I went back home and showed my mother my appointment letter, she told me that was her dream and she always wanted me to be a teacher. I told her my dream was to join the private sector and drive a nice car. I had seen a salesman at Mascho when I went to buy chicken feed, the guy was driving a brand new Nissan Sunny box shapped car. Ever since I saw that guy that was my dream. My teachers were not driving nice cars and I did not want to be like them. My mother went to a supermarket in Cherima were she had an account and got me groceries. My mother was a miracle worker somehow she could solve any problem in front of me.

I got my first salary payment in October 1996 for two months it was $4 000, I had never seen so much money in my life. I bought groceries for the family at TM Marondera without worrying how much was the cost and it felt good. I went to Harare bought a double cassette player and a 14”black and white TV the first TV we ever had in my mother’s house. I also bought a few cassettes, I remember Celine Dion’s Falling Into You, 1996 Grammy Nominees, Best of Bob Marley. My mum was surprised that as a young woman, she had enjoyed Bob Marley and here I was almost 20 years later enjoying the same music. I also applied for a landline telephone and it was installed at our home.

In December 1996 I got paid $4 800 including my bonus for 4 months. I went to Harare and bought everyone clothing for Christmas something that we last had in 1989. I bought groceries for Christmas. In 1997 my dream came true and I joined the private sector. In 1998 I went to Meikles Store and bought a 14” WRS colour TV on hire Purchase and took it home to my mother.

In 1999 I got a job at Diamond Insurance Company, the job paid about 4 times what I earned as a teacher. There was a huge 29” WRS TV that was on auction at work, I placed my bid and I won the bid. My boss Pepelapi Gumbo (Pepe would become my boss again 5 years later at Zimnat Lion) gave me her company car a charcoal grey Mazda 626. My friend Godfrey Matambo drove me to Marondera and we struggled to get the huge TV in and out of the car. I then took the 14” to my home in Avondale where I was renting a 2 roomed cottage. I was now staying with my sister Rosemary and she was doing her A’Levels at University of Zimbabwe night school which was a walking distance from home.

Beginning of 2000, I got a better paying job at AIG Zimbabwe, my salary would be 10 times what I earned as a teacher. I could now qualify to open a current account with Standard Chartered Bank. That year, my employer gave me a loan and I bought a brand new big deep freezer. I hired a colleague Mr Muzembe and he carried the freezer with his Mazda B1600 on a Friday evening from Harare to Marondera. When we got home my mother was not there. When my mother came back, I had never seen her that proud ever since she held me grade 7 results and O’Level results.
All her life my mother had relied on her neighbors for a fridge.

Poverty is dehumanizing and the worst thing is that it is very difficult to escape poverty. You need people around you who believes in your potential and even your worth. Due to the encouraging words I heard constantly from my mother, I knew that even though we were poor, I would go places🙏🏿 In 2003, a year after my mother died, all my siblings wanted to come and stay with me in Harare. MaNyoni and I moved from Avondale and started renting a 3 bedroom house in Unit H Chitungwiza as the Avondale place was too small for 8 of us. Unit H was not a pleasant place to be, it was crowded, there was water shortages, burst sewerage everywhere and we suffered a burglary whilst we were sleeping. Transport to and from Harare
was now a challenge, thankfully I was now a manager and I had been allocated a company car end of 2002. I had a fight with my youngest sister and she told me that I had done nothing for her in her life. something died inside me that day😢 It took me years to heal from those words.

MY TRAVEL DIARIES- MY SCHOOL TRIP TO GABORONE, BOTSWANA FROM KWEKWE IN 1989

I have been watching videos of rail journeys especially the 8 000kms Siberian train journey from Moscow to Beijing that one is on my bucket list. The other train ride on my bucket list is on the Tazara railway from Zambia to Dar es Salaam. Here is one of my unforgettable train journeys that I embarked on in 1989. In the 80s when I was in primary school in Zimbabwe, it was a tradition that grade 7 class would go for a long trip. Previous classes had gone to Kariba Dam or Victoria Falls.

I had started grade 7 at Amaveni Primary School in January 1989. Around February 1989 my father was transferred from Amaveni Police Station to Mbizo Police Station in Mbizo township also in the town of Kwekwe about 8kms away on the other side of the town Centre. Myself and my two younger sisters we transferred to Ruvimbo Primary School not far from our new home. At that time in Kwekwe there were Primary schools offering Shona or Ndebele laungages, I only went to Shona speaking schools which turned to be a disadvantage in my adult life when I worked in Bulawayo and when I relocated to South Africa.

In 1989, the school decided on something new, a trip to Gaborone. When the school trip was announced, I asked my mum and she spoke to my dad and they agreed that I would go for the trip. Normally if you apply for a passport in Zimbabwe you have to go to the provincial capital in our case it was the city of Gweru. Because of the large number of pupils involved our passport applications were done right there in Kwekwe.

I got my first passport and it was valid for 10 years. Then our passports had a black and white photograph. We also had to apply for forex to use in Botswana. My group was allocated to Grindlays Bank. I went to the bank to apply for travelers cheque worth 200 Pula (That was a lot of money then). We were going by train to and from Gaborone. In the 80s Zimbabwe government had constructed an electric railway line from Harare to Dabuka just after the city of Gweru.

I had a keen interest in trains as my uncle Mr Dunira was a station Master working for National Railways of Zimbabwe. We were transported by buses to Kwekwe Railway Station. The area was familiar for me as my father had been guarding at the nearby Kwekwe Aerodrome. I would cycle from Mbizo police Station to the aerodrome to bring him food. I would marvel from a distance at the light aircrafts that would land and takeoff whenever I visited him.

The train from would arrive in Kwekwe around midnight. Kwekwe is about halfway between cities of Harare and Bulawayo. The train had coaches reserved for our school for that journey, our coaches were not accessible to the rest of the train passengers we had class 2 modern semi sleeper coaches. I remember the buffet car fondly in the train. On that journey it was the second time I came face to face with corruption. The first time I came across corruption was around 1983-1984 when my sister Rosemary and I would help ourselves to the Cerelac and Pronutro porridge then meant for our infant brother Tendai Kanyoka🙈 I wonder why Pronutro no longer taste that good 🤔.

On this trip family members of our teachers as well as officials from the ministry of education and their families had tagged along which meant our coaches were crowded you struggled to get a place to sit. I am convinced all these people had not paid for the trip. After we had been placed in our coach, I saw that I would be facing a girl in the other grade 7 class whom I had a crash on. I was also scared I would do something stupid, she knew I had a crash on her because every time we came face to face I would literally freeze. I knew I would not be able to enjoy my journey so I moved away from that coach. I spent a lot of my time moving up and down the train looking out of the windows on the train passage.

At Dabuka we got a diesel locomotive for the rest of the journey to Bulawayo. I have written about my first time in Bulawayo in a previous blog. Bulawayo remains my favorite city in Zimbabwe. We arrived in Bulawayo early in the morning, I remember the huge industrial buildings. Then Bulawayo was the manufacturing hub for Zimbabwe.

We spent hours at Bulawayo Railway Station and our coaches were connected to the steam engine destined for Plumtree. A steam engine is a feat of engineering. I will never forget the sound of the steam locomotive and the bell. Coal is fed into the engine and on a curve sprays of water from the locomotive can land on your face. After getting into Botswana the train was now being pulled by the Botswana Railways diesel locomotive. We waited in Francistown for the night train to Gaborone.

From what I remember our coaches were joined to the train to Gaborone. Botswana is a sparsely populated country. The only name I recognized was a place called Mahalype. At Amaveni Police Station we had shared a house with Mr Musharu also known as Baba Paida, he had remarried and his new wife was a Mo Tswana lady. She had told me she came from Mahalype, Botswana.

On the third day we arrived in Gaborone. Then in 1989 Gaborone was not very much developed. We stayed at a school not far from the city center. I was told the boarder with then Apartheid South Africa was not far away. One thing I enjoyed was the canned Sparletta drinks which cost a few Thebes then. Reading the cans they were written Kgalagadi Bottlers. Then in Zimbabwe we drank our soft drinks in bottles, every payday and Christmas holidays we would drink soft drink. There were lot of varieties of drinks to choose from in Botswana 😋 👌🏿. We went to the bank to change our travellers’ Cheque.

Even at young age then I was very responsible I bought a Trident Radio one cassette player that was the first radio we ever had at home. I also bought my then cute 🙈youngest brother Brian Kanyoka a toy a Mercedes SE model car (I loved Mercedes Benz even back then). We spent about 3 days in Gaborone before going back. Gaborone was a very hot place. We then caught a train for the return trip to Kwekwe. I didn’t not enjoy the rice and the pap I bought as it had a lot of spices, then we never used to eat food with too much spices.

In 1990-1990 I travelled from Marondera with a neighbour to Francistown to buy stuff for sale to supermarkets, I remember cartons of TV bar chocolates. After I joined Zimnat Lion in 2004 as an Underwriting Manager, Mr Chiswo our Managing Director then called me to his office and asked me if I believed in prayer and I told him yes, he told me that I should pray as I was being considered to be seconded to Botswana Insurance Company a sister company within TA Holdings. The position was given to my peer Betty who deserved it more as she was more experienced and more qualified than me.

I would visit Gaborone again end of 2006 with MaNyoni and our boys. In 2006, Botswana had changed, a new highway from Francistown to Gaborone was being constructed. Gaborone had grown much bigger from what I remembered from 1989. I know the politicians in Botswana are not perfect but in my book, Botswana is an example of what can happen if politicians puts the country’s interest above their own selfish interest. I look forward to visiting Botswana 🇧🇼 again soon

TAKE CARE OF YOUR MENTAL HEALTH DURING THE SHUTDOWN

When the shutdown was announced, I wondered how I would cope staying indoors. I love running but there is no running during this period. My mind went back to Easter 2012 when we visited Robben Island. I first read Nelson Mandela’s Autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom in 1996. I was teaching at Chifamba Secondary School in Mudzi and one of the teachers brought in a brand new copy. I read it in about 2 days, normally if a book is interesting I will read it up to 1am.

I have now read the book 3 times and I will read it again. Nelson Mandela was an extra ordinary human being. When I saw his tiny cell /prison room at Robben Island, I wondered how the prisoners coped in such harsh environments. Reading Long Walk to Freedom shows how amazing the human brain is. To some the Apartheid government would rule for a long time. Nelson Mandela and his Comrades never lost hope. Their minds continued flying outside their confinements.

Nelson Mandela was able to exercise even in that cell and his mind was able to imagine a free South Africa and how they were going to achieve that dream. One of my best quotes from Nelson Mandela is, “ There are times when a leader must move out ahead of the flock, go off in a new direction, confident that he is leading his people the right way.”

As humanity we are going through a challenging time but I have no doubt that we will get through this, as humans we were created to overcome. The world as we know it will change but we will adapt, the same way we adapted with any change in the history of humanity. Scientists throughout the world are working overtime trying to understand this virus. Please take of your physical 

YOU CAN ONLY ACHIEVE WHAT YOU HAVE IMAGINED OR DREAMNT

After 6 months of being self employed, I went back to work on 1 April 2018. I had planned to stay for a few months as I had big plans back home in Zimbabwe, I had planned to grow tobacco on a bigger scale at least 10 hectares, I had learnt in 2016 that tobacco farming needed you to be on the ground and I also wanted to upscale my piggery project. Anyway being Zimbabwe things went from bad to worse especially with the return of Zimbabwean dollar. They say you never lose either you win or learn.

I spent many months regretting why I had come back to work in the first place. I like this Nigerian proverb, “no matter how hot your anger is, it cannot cook yams”. Having read Chinua Achebe’s triology, yams are a staple food more like maize meal that we use to cook our sadza(pap). At times it is better to forgive yourself and move on. It is always the hardest thing to do. I decided just to focus on the here and now. From October last year I just started working very hard.

I worked every Saturday and every public holiday when our office was open, 16 December, 26 December and 1 January. I was a top performer in our department in 4 of the five months from October to February, I came a close second in January (anyway who remembers number 2🙈 We all know Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the money and very few of us know about Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin who was the second man. I remember one of characters on Toy Story movie was named Buzz)

In the process I broke some smaller nyana records (to quote former Minister Bathabile Dhamini 🤣) especially in December 2019. I am very positive my December record will stand the test of time 💪🏿I am used to breaking records. I am a very competitive person, in primary school I would cry if I was not number 1🙈. I was once told that it was impossible to win top performers’ incentive from Business claims. In 2011 I was the first person to win from Business Claims, my friend Lloyd Naidoo became the second person to do so a few years later. In 2016 I won the incentive again from Business Claims having won it again in 2014 from Accidents Claims.

Succeeding in anything takes a lot of mental strength whether it’s running a marathon, running a business or simply completing a task. Many times you feel like you want to quit and it is normal, you dig deeper and find your strength and you stagger ahead. In December I was supposed to go on leave for almost 3 weeks, I told my boss a few days before my leave was due to start that I was going to cancel my leave and I am glad I did that.

No one is self made in this world, we all rely on support around us to succeed. My wife MaNyoni Onita Kanyoka would wake up early in December to help me prepare for work even though she was on leave. Most days she would sit in the car waiting for me to finish work. My boss Abigail Bella Mampuru also had to handle huge volumes of work from me and I go to her to complain and she would listen patiently and tell me, “ It’s okay you can complain because I know by the time you complain you would have tried to handle it on your own”🙏🏿 I am grateful for the help I get from all the team managers in Non Motor Claims who helps me when my boss is not around.

This month I have been at OUTsurance for a cumulative 12 years, I guess I am now part of the furniture 💃🏿🕺🏿I first joined OUTsurance starting 1 September 2007 and that was a week after I relocated from Zimbabwe 🙏🏿