Mashwede, talk of town

Takawira ‘Photovet’ Dapi

IN the last few days, High Glen road has become the talk of town with a new joint attracting hordes of people.

Perched in the industrial area along High Glen Road off Willowvale, is Mashwede Village – the new talk of town.

Proprietor Alex Mashamhanda took time to talk about Mashwede Village and what it offers.

“I will enumerate the buildings that we have got here, basically, first of all I will describe the area, it is composed of two stands, one is commercial and the other one is industrial, both totalling about 21 000sqm.

“On the pieces of this land, we have got a service station, fast foods outlet with a kiosk, a night club, private and public bars with all supporting equipped state of the art structures, braai area and kitchen centres which are entirely state of the art equipped. There is a fully equipped secured children’s centre, we also have best toilets.

“And then we go to the industrial side, we have an industrial park which we built in 2007, a flea market which we hope to open in January 2020 immediately after certain alterations have been made by the electrical authority in terms of moving the power line outside our area, then we have 16 shops which we applied to the authorities to operate in complementary to the flea market,” he told H-Metro.

Mashwede also faces some challenges despite his wealth.

 

“We face challenges every day because we are living in an economy which obviously has got challenges

“Our currency in particular, has not been very stable, so you cannot save today to meet a commitment tomorrow, because you do not know what the value of the currency might be tomorrow.

“However, you try your best to buy building materials as soon as you get money because if you do not, that money might lose value, so it is one of the challenges up to now.”

He revealed how he acquired land.

“Most of the land which we got was being advertised by the local authority, in the newspapers on many occasions, and everybody was given an opportunity to participate in the acquisition of the land, to bid for the land, so if somebody says I have challenges to acquire land, I would not know their situations.

“But, the local authority would sometimes advertise the land, inviting those who are interested to buy and prove that they are able to develop on that land, and they would be considered, and it is that process that we have been through.

“But, I would not speak for other people’s experiences, they might have had their own experiences but what I am saying is what I am aware of and at times one might not have access to the newspapers, adverts or other media but I think it will be proper to correspond with the authorities,” said Mashwede.

On his advice to Zimbabweans, he said:

“My advice to all doing formal or informal jobs today, is always integrity. In business you deal with fellow human beings, they must have confidence in you, the financial institutions, the suppliers, your customers, the employees, everybody whom you do business with, must believe and have confidence in you.

“The most important thing in you is to earn that confidence, you cannot do anything on your own, in my view, it not possible, so just be honest to your business even if it’s yours.”

Mashwede’s brief background:

“Sekuru VaMashwede is me, I was born on 16 October 1950 in Chivi, Masvingo.

“I did my Primary education at St Simon Primary School in Chivi there, then I did my secondary education up to form four at Berejena and Gokomere Secondary School, I cannot remember the grades I passed with then because the grading passes were not what it is now, but I just remember that in my class I was amongst the top three and I assume that was not very bad, because I got eight or nine subjects at O-Level.

“From there I didn’t go for A-Level but went ahead and did a diploma in Local Government Administration at Domboshava Training Centre in 1972.

“When I joined the banking field that was when I did the Institute of Bankers and with UNISA I did Law Degree on my own.

“My best subject I think it was mathematics,” he said.

“I can remember all, my father was a farmer and a polygamist with a number of wives, still but he took care of us all, he didn’t select us, even our mothers were the same to us.

“I am married and blessed with children and grandchildren and we have Mashwede Towers, Mashwede Garage and we have a number of properties because our culture has been to acquire pieces of land and develop it, so to Zimbabwean youths, never give up,” said Mashwede.

– HMETRO