Letter from America – The three dreamers of Zaka

By Professor Ken Mufuka | Financial Gazette |

As is my custom, as soon as I land on Zimbabwean soil, I travel to Masvingo to pay respects to my longtime friend Fabian Mabaya and his wife, Happiness.

During my recent visit, Mabaya pointed out that Zimbabwe is not short of creative geniuses, entrepreneurs and dreamers.

By taking a trip along the Zaka-Chiredzi Highway, to my surprise, I was a witness to three genius entrepreneurs within a small radius of eight kilometres from each other. Despite every stumbling block placed in their way, these geniuses are overcoming every hurdle with restrained smiles on their faces.

What I heard was that Zimbabweans had reached a hopeless situation and that their dreams had been smashed to smithereens.

A tour of Zaka district brought me in contact with some amazing dreamers. These dreamers, against all odds, were achieving some success.

Munetsi Chavizha took early retirement from a senior position in the police force.
Through private studies he had graduated with a degree in human resources.

While the future looked bright, his passion was somewhere else. At heart he was a farmer. True, he had satisfied his book learning at Zimbabwe Open University.

Barely 55 years of age, was he in his prime?
Looking for a job was out of the question.
Nobody was hiring, and looking around the urban areas, he saw only abandoned factory yards.
His family responsibilities were heavy.
His mother and his young wife, though reasonably healthy, required some attention.
He, of course had a lot of life left, perhaps another quarter of a century.

The issue here became critical. If he entered into a wrong path, he might lose all his pension. But all business is risky.

He returned to his youthful passion. Chavizha and his brother, had, in their teen age years (at only 13) surprised their father when they had dug a well and bricked it. That had proved a simple fact which his brother now realised as a positive. But in what direction was this positive.

Zimbabweans rarely talk about possibilities and dreams, but now his brother reminded him of their teenage experiments in farming. Israeli drip irrigation made the desert bloom. Zaka is in Region Four, a region known for its interminable droughts. As they say in Zimbabwe, there were only challenges and no silver lining in the sky.

It was Chavizha’s willingness to risk his entire pension into this Israeli irrigation scheme that qualified him as a dreamer. He did not need to grab a farm. Outside his tribal 10-hectare plot, there was another piece, half as large, he could use if he needed it.

When I visited Global Gardens, I counted 5 000 hybrid tomato plants. His mother and two sisters  were busy roasting half a bushel of native peanuts (which are regarded as tastier than the red American kidney type peanut).

Chavizha’s business card says that he is an Israeli irrigation installation expert. His tomatoes take three weeks longer to ripen than those raised in a green house. The wait is worthwhile as direct sun contact makes them sweeter.

Customers in Chiredzi, 160 kilometres away, swear that only a witch (intended as a compliment) can grow such sweet tomatoes.

I cannot reveal the amount of sales because the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority has no sense of humour. In this small 10-hectare farm, he grows three crops a year, employs six family members. His presence in Zaka civil affairs keeps his intellectual curiosity alive.

The point I am making is that Zimbabwe is not short of dreamers, nor is it short of entrepreneurs, nor is it short of food.  Zimbabwe is blessed by a multitude of dreamers like Chivizha and his business trade name, Global Gardens, is an expression of the width and depth of his dream.

Eight kilometres down the highway from Global Gardens, lies the dream world of Zuma Cultural Lodges. An electrician by training,  a K Munyariwa worked for a private cultural park in Namibia.

Realising that urban pupils were not aware of fauna and native trees and their various uses, he saw a vision that could be translated into Zimbabwe’s tourist matrix. Of course there were challenges, but his passion for the project was more powerful than the challenges.

He made friends with all kinds of God’s creatures, a hybrid boar, crocodiles, peacocks, singing doves, ducks, pigeons, zebras, kudus and three zebras. A bus load of pupils from Mabvuku spent an unforgettable week-end in the wilderness, trekking up a steep hill.
Pupils have to see Munyariwa’s cultural phenomenon in order to believe it.

Munyariwa kept an interest through Pecom Academy in nearby Zaka Development Hub.
When Sarah Munemo was transferred from her Grade A School post to a public school, life brought many painful challenges. She and her husband converted their dream house into a private school.

While government was keen to offer supervision, it declined financial support for its five teachers. The Academy has produced some genius and dreamers. It has, more often than not, registered 100 percent pass rate at Ordinary Level.

The academy brings the three Zaka geniuses together. Sister Munemo and Brother Munyariwa have committed their lives and fortunes to supporting the Pecom dream. Among the dreamers are 13 year old Sister Melody Munatsi, resident poetess.

The poetess welcomed our delegation with a challenge:

My name is poverty, you are welcome.
“I am poverty, I am persistent”
Chorus: Poverty, you will not kill my dream.”

These Zimbabwean dreamers have overcome every challenge without receiving any favour from the powers-that-be, nor did they grab anybody’s piece of land or receive any financial hand-outs.