SO YOU ARE in diaspora, you think of investing back home? Be careful

1. Now & again I get Facebook messenger from close relatives back home. The other one said, sekuru let’s do joint venture in mining, ndikati good idea muzukuru. The other one babamunini ndimi muri business 2. minded vhurai business in Zim ndiwane chekuita, I asked are you registered to vote zvikanzi kwete voting doesn’t work. In any case if & I open a business in Zimbabwe, I will appoint the right people kwete hama.

A close relative based overseas for almost 18 years visited Vic

MANAGING money continued

1. Our lives experience in Zimbabwe makes us slightly better at managing money than our peers. Many Zimbabweans who moved to SA on skilled visas started looking at buying homes in SA as soon as they arrived. We used to share information on which banks 2. were more accommodating, almost everyone in my circle got a bond within 2 years. I was not that lucky. In 2008 a year after arriving in SA, I put an offer on a 3 bed apartment in Centurion that was about to be repossessed. The offer was accepted but when I applied for bond FNB

MANAGING money is a skill

1. We all aspire to earn more money but we forget that it’s equally important to learn how to manage money. I like this saying,

The same salary you complain about, some people are making miracles out of it!

I will never forget this couple working 2: as waiters in Pretoria yet managing to build a house in an urban area back in Zimbabwe 👏🏿👏🏿

To be honest working hard for your money & just having to save without spending on things you love doesn’t seem very much fun.

Do yourself check out videos by Ramit Sethi on YouTube

I ALWAYS in trouble for being biased against Chamisa & Mnangagwa when I express my strong opinions

1. The other thing I get attacked for being outside Zimbabwe. I have voted in every election even though I left Zimbabwe in 2007. I was not sure about voting in 2023 but I have 2. changed my mind. In 2000 at the age of 23 I voted for the 1st time in the Constitutional referendum. My mum then forced me, my sister Rose who was 21 & Phillipa who was 18 to register to vote. Her thinking was you can work as hard as you can but in a misgoverned state that

IN ZIMBABWE criticising a leader is not tolerated

1. I grew up in Midlands Province (Belingwe & Kwekwe) and Mashonaland Province (Marondera & Murehwa). You were not allowed to ask to many questions to elders, you would get into trouble. The only exception would be your mother 2. After high school I started temporary teaching in 1996. In 1997 got a post at Kambarami Sec School just outside Murehwa Center. I was teaching form 1 & 2. We had hot seating due to shortage of classrooms. Junior high school pupils permanently attended school masikati(afternoon

WHAT I WISH I KNEW when I was finishing high school

1. Like many pupils in Zimbabwe I lacked career guidance. As someone who grew up in poverty, I was determined to make it & I realised my pathway was through education. I wanted to drive a nice car & live in a beautiful house. 2. I remember in Marondera there was this Nigerian doctor, Dr Omo. In high school I had the impression that a doctor was the highest paid professional. We were so poor to afford a private doctor. My friend James Chapuma his father worked for CSC, they had medical aid. In one of

#DoingHustlesInZimbabwe

1. Between 2011-2012 I was running a profitable tuckshop at home in Zimre Park, I will do a thread on that. I decided to start a broiler project with 2011 Christmas in mind. I took a bus to Harare end of October, I bought day old chicks, wooden planks, I 2. always have roofing sheets at home, I normally send anything from 100 roofing sheets. The day old chicks would be delivered the following week. I had won the top performers’ over seas award at work. MaNyoni & I were flying to Phuket, Thailand on 31 October 2011 for ten days.

WHILST the business environment in Zim is challenging, I found it easier to start a hustle in Zim than say in SA.

1. Wakambowona chigayo here in SA? 2018 I visited this pig farmer just outside Garankuwa on the outskirts of Pretoria. We compared notes & we agreed Zimbabwean 2. small scale pig farmer had it better in terms of sourcing input’s & marketing their produce. For her she bought all her straight feed (concentrate is very rare in SA) when selling she had a few abattoirs she sold to then she was getting less than $1.5 as compared to $3 in Zim

I WISH I knew this when I started doing hustles 23 years ago

1. Specialisation is king. I used to chase everything that was the in thing that was a mistake (right now I have a egg hatching machine at home that I bought time yezvihuta imagine R25 000 yakangogara for 7 years eish) 2. I get it when people say you must spread your risk after all I am an insurance person I understand concept of risk. In business that doesn’t work. Here me out, you are most likely to start a hustle in a mature industry, you must learn as much as possible from your mistakes &

YOU NEED friction in your life to keep growing.

1. Do you ever wonder why some people keep on winning? The answer might lies in them never being content with the status quo. If you are a marathon runner, you will understand the moment you complete one, you need to start training 2. training for the next. Somehow humans thrive on being uncomfortable for them to keep growing. An example take a person who is in their country of origin & they end up in a foreign country. They start realising that their qualifications, experience no longer matter in a foreign

IT SEEMS the issue of sharing cellphones with your spouse has to do with whether people do share secrets with their spouses

1. I learnt something important from my dad during his last days. My father had best friends when we loved in Kwekwe whom he considered his brothers. 2. when he became seriously ill vana babamuni were no longer coming home. When he became seriously ill he requested transfer to be closer to our rural home in Murehwa. We moved to Marondera in June 1990. As the 1st born I would spend a lot of time with him, I got to talk to him.

COMMUNICATION in a marriage including the thorny issue of cellphone privacy 🤪

1. Someone said cellphones in a marriage are now more private than private parts!

For me I surrendered my cellphone password in the 3rd year of our marriage. I just wish I had done it earlier. 2. When you hide your phone it gives the impression yekuti pane dzauri kutsikisa, perception is reality to many people.

In early 2005 I had travelled to Bulawayo for the annual sporting weekend. The following week I was working late in the office, I phoned MaNyoni from my work

YOUR MOST important decision, whom you marry☝🏿

1. I reckon one of the most difficult things is to tell your spouse that I’m resigning from my job especially to sit at home, relocate to a difficult place such as Zimbabwe or to start or manage your hustle. I have done it 3 times 2. MaNyoni was the 1st to resign in early 2007. The previous year I had been appointed Bulawayo branch mgr. My wife had a comfortable job at the back office at head office in Borrowdale. She seeked a transfer also to Bulawayo & became a snr bank teller. She hated that job it was

MONEY in a marriage

@bethkay1

1. I came to SA 6 years after I got married, I remember this workmate asking if MaNyoni knew exactly how much I earned, I told him yes, he was so shocked 😯

I learnt from my parents. My dad was a police officer & my mum was a housewife. When my 2. dad got paid mum controlled the finance (it was something that evolved), I remember in the 80s when I was between 10-13 years of age on pay day I would go with mum to Kwekwe CBD mum would pay the Edgars & Sales house accounts, buy groceries at OK, TM & Narans Supermarkets, we

I SHARE my marriage experience because I wish someone had told me what to expect.

1. No one told me that pregnancy can alter a person that much. My wife generally is chilled & does not panic like me 🤪 after our lobola ceremony in Sept 2001 she moved in with me in Avondale. 2. Towards the end of 2002, we were now expecting our first child. I realised my wife had changed & I figured that pregnancy really hated me. Fortunately for me I had started operating 2 shops in Murehwa meaning most weekends I was not home. Any argument we had she now wanted to

WHY I won’t vote in 2023
1. I have voted in each & every election since 2000 except the 2005 senate election that led to the 1st split of MDC, I actually agreed with President Tsvangirai’s stance then that Zimbabwe didn’t need a senate. I left Zimbabwe in 2007, I still went home 2. to vote in the March 2008 election as well as the June 2008 runoff because by the time President Tsvangirai withdrew from the runoff, I had already bought my bus ticket from Pretoria & applied for leave. I remember getting off from Greyhound bus at Roadport, hiring a taxi to

ADVICE TO young men, tiza miyedzo

1. There is high risk of cheating when you are young. Choose your friends carefully, be wary of your girl friend’s or wife’s friends, sisters, cousins, nieces etc. In my experience women share too much intimate details with their friends etc 2. saka unenge wakato marketiwa imagine vamwe vakadzi havasati vambodyiwa Lula Lula then your woman brags about her sexual experiences (I once had a girlfriend who told her friend, I figured it out & didn’t fall into friend’s trap). Some friends are jealous of her & want to

TRANSPORT to Zimbabwe

1. Thank you family for your support. I realised there is so much demand for cross border transport services from Joburg & Pretoria. This week, I am sending a small truck to Harare. Depending on the demand, I can send a bigger truck in the coming weeks. 2. A reminder, you can order and pay online from many suppliers in SA. I will then collect for you from your supplier within Joburg or Pretoria and take to storage if I am transporting for you. Alternatively I can deliver to bus stations to your preferred Zim bound bus or truck

POLITICS AFFECTS EVERYTHING

1. I started school in 1983 only a few years after Zim’s 🇿🇼 independence. The 1985 & 1990 elections we were staying in Kwekwe. I have tweeted about my trauma when I saw the violence against PF-ZAPU supporters in the 1985 elections. ED was Kwekwe MP 2. My father was a police officer at Amaveni Police Station, the member in charge was sekuru Zimondi. My father had worked with Mr Zimondi in Belingwe during Rhodesia years, my father was 1st to be transferred to Amaveni in 1982 & sekuru came around 84, in 1983-1984 we stayed

DO WOMEN EVER LIE ABOUT SEXUAL HARRASMENT? MY STORY

At 29 in 2006, I got promoted to be Bulawayo branch mgr of an insurance company. A friend who had worked in the Bulawayo branch just said baba mukuru mungwarire so & so. She was on separation but still married, I wasn’t worried I gathered she would seduce every branch mgr so that she would run the show. She started sending me suggestive e-mails & many signs, luckily as a mgr my e-mail server was unlimited so I didn’t delete any e-mails. Eventually she stopped. She was one of my 3 supervisors. I knew she

1. My Experience in 21 years in a marriage. Decided to write after this post on Tete Fadzie’s TL

- When you get married, you are excited not thinking much about the changes ahead

- The 1st year was a breeze until pressure started, a white wedding was a priority for her, not me 2. As we entered our 2nd year, we had huge bills of the forthcoming white wedding & also she was pregnant. Bills were not much of a problem as I got promoted & became a manager, also my retail business was doing OK. I didn’t know that pregnancy can change a person that much😢