OLD Mutual Zimbabwe group chief executive, Jonas Mushosho has retired from the conglomerate after reaching the retirement age.
Mushosho served as CEO for over seven years.

NewsDay Business reporter Tatira Zwinoira (ND) talked to Mushosho (JM) at his farewell reception last week on his reflections as well as what comes next for him.

ND: You have now retired from Old Mutual, I guess the question would then be what’s next for you?

JM: Before I answer what is next for me, I first of all want to express my gratitude to Old Mutual for 30 years of an unbelievably good career, an enjoyable career. Old Mutual has been very good to me. Old Mutual is an important institution in the fabric of Zimbabwe as one of those icons and one of those torch bearers that will build and shape the future of the nation. And therefore, being associated with Old Mutual I will continue to carry the Old Mutual values and its ambitions that it carries in the country.

But I am leaving Old Mutual on retirement a happy and satisfied member of the family.

Obviously, when reaching retirement, one has to take some time to rest a bit and spend time doing some of things that I have not been able to do, particularly, in the past three years because of extensive travel. As you are aware, I was the Group CEO for Old Mutual Zimbabwe which is in itself a very large financial services group, a very complex business. And I was also MD for the rest of Africa, that is, all Old Mutual businesses in Africa, outside South Africa, 12 countries, so there was a lot of travel.

In fact, I travelled every single week, but that job has been very enjoyable; my most enjoyable job in my working career. Waking every morning having to think of 12 different challenges coming from 12 different countries, five different lines of businesses.

So, I need now time to rest and have time to do some of the things I have not been able to do, but within a short time.

This is not retirement, but it is retirement from Old Mutual…so one just merely changes career. I think the knowledge, experience and work I have done in Zimbabwe and outside will count a lot in the next phase of my career and I will let friends, colleagues, and those who have an interest know exactly the next stages not far from now.

ND: Very diplomatic
JM: Yes. I also need to spend time on things that are very dear to me. I am very much involved in church work which sadly I have not done a lot of in the past three years. So, I think I have a lot more to contribute to the church particularly in my work, preaching and teaching at the bible school.

ND: You mentioned the networks you built, not just in Zimbabwe, but outside as well. Do you feel your next path might take you outside the country or will you remain in Zimbabwe?

JM: I would like to remain based in Zimbabwe, but working across the continent. I believe that Zimbabwe is my home base and I have what I must contribute to this country, but certainly I just think that the next stage of my career is pan-African

ND: Now, when one retires they think of the ups and downs of your career. Do you think you left any areas that you could have done more during your tenure at Old Mutual?

JM: Ah, there are lots. There are lots of things we have not been able to achieve. I spoke in my farewell speech about unfinished works… every leader will have unfinished works. Some things that they did not get to finish and some things they were not able to accomplish so I do have lots of things.

ND: Which one immediately comes to mind? Or should I say which one would you say gets you to think ‘I wish I had finished that one?’

JM: I think the one that bothers me most is the agenda around young people.

We started the youth fund with the hope of making a significant contribution to create employment and business opportunities for young people. And I have often said many times, 70% of our people are young under the age of 35. We are producing these by the droves out of universities and colleges, but they are not finding employment, and this cannot be right.

Some of us when we left university, we were walking straight into jobs, but we have bright kids who have a right to play a part in the economic activity of their country and there are no opportunities. And we can’t fool ourselves to think that the young people are going to be content to stand on the side lines and be excluded from the economic activity of this country. So, we have not been able to make progress, but we have started doing work to support young people.

We have an innovation hub that Lillian (Lillian Mbayiwa, Head of Group Marketing and Innovation) is leading that will support young people.

I would have been happier if we had done a lot more than we did.

ND: You are retiring at a time the economy is at a crossroads. As a company that has so much vested interests all over the economy, what is your take?

JM: Every economic crisis, no matter how long or deep, will eventually come to an end. At Old Mutual and in my own life we believe that this economic crisis will come to an end.

What is more important are the kind of things we are doing now to prepare for the future and I think this is where Old Mutual plays a significant role because of Old Mutual’s strong base and proud history of being resilient.

Our company has been here since 1896, officially opening an office in 1902. And this company has survived two world wars, several droughts, famines, Unilateral Declaration of Independence by Ian Smith followed by United Nations sanctions, a protracted liberation struggle, then we had hyperinflation and many other difficulties. But Old Mutual has remained committed to contributing to economic activity.

More than ever before, you need strong institutions to remain strong all the times and to be ploughing and sowing into the future, so this is the role Old Mutual should be playing during these difficult times. To be a leading institution that shows strength and commitment to this country.

ND: What advice would you give your successor?

JM: These is not much that I would give to him… The bulk of his agenda is not going to be a thing that he inherits. We bring in new people so that they can bring fresh ideas and run their own race. Sam (Matsekete, the new Old Mutual Zimbabwe group chief executive officer) has been appointed because he is a capable leader and we expect him to run his race the best way he knows how and it can’t be for me to start telling him what he should start doing.

We just want him to be himself and to have the space to run Old Mutual during his time and tenure in a way that at the end of his tenure he leaves it in a better space than he found it.
ND: How would you describe your tenure as CEO?

JM: An enjoyable journey. I think what I have enjoyed most is working with people both inside and outside Old Mutual to try to do very good things that have supported economic activity and the communities. I think I inherited a lot of projects from my predecessor and I am happy we were able to execute and finish those projects.

We started other things, with the exco (executive) team, that we were able to finish and complete.

There is also some unfinished business that goes into the future. Old Mutual is not a one man place; it is an institution that builds and thrives on teamwork, so I don’t want to focus on what I have accomplished, but on what Old Mutual has accomplished.

ND: Old Mutual worked closely with government over the years in some of the projects you did. Do you think government could have done more, would you like to see that in the future?

JM: Old Mutual, as the largest financial services group, believes that its role in the economy is to support economic revival. And the second point is in doing activities that support economic activity we need several partners, with government being one of them, but there are others.

We go out of our way to work with government and other like-minded people who support the communities. We focus less on “government should have us”. What we expect from government is government must focus on providing an enabling environment so that the private sector can do what we do.

In an environment like this, there are things we would wish government to do, but others that
we feel government could have done faster.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

TREGER Plastics, a division of Treger Products (Pvt) Ltd, is currently operating at 30% of capacity due to subdued demand, general manager Craig Lowe, has said.

Lowe told government officials led by Industry and Commerce deputy minister Raj Modi during a company tour last week that Treger Plastics had started feeling the pinch due to the prevailing harsh economic conditions.

“When I came here in 2013, Zimbabwe was going through a boom stage . . . but, unfortunately, the packaging industry was dominated by imports, mainly from South Africa and from the east.

We quickly realised that there is no way you could just offer a substantive product, you had to compete with what they (consumers) were used to getting from mainly South Africa…,” Lowe said.

“So we embarked on a R100 million recapitalisation programme and that really hasn’t stopped. When I first got here we were doing about 120 tonnes a month with old equipment and we then recapitalised and quickly ramped up in 2014 to about 400 tonnes in poly and 200 tonnes on the packaging.”

At the turn of the millennium, Lowe said they could produce about 500 tonnes a month with other problems, but now due to economic volatility, they were operating at 30% of capacity.

“That continued happily until about 2017 when we started to feel the dissipation in the market. As a result, volumes started to drop. We could probably be doing 150 tonnes in poly and 100 tonnes on packaging as opposed to 400 and 200 tonnes. So again, that’s speaks to your 30% (capacity) and that has been holding firmly to that level for about six months,” he said.

“When we go around and talk to customers, it’s just that the demand is not there as it used to be. It’s not that we are suffering from imports. Customers want to buy local,” Lowe said.

Treger Plastics in 2016 invested in a plastic recycling plant at a cost of
US$1 million, a first of its kind in Bulawayo.

The recycling plant, which is located in Thorngrove, recycles plastic which the company then uses as raw material in the plastic modelling department.

Lowe said they, however, remain bullish about continuing investing in Zimbabwe.

“We continue to invest, but more in local content where we can use local material, local monies …,” he said.

The company currently employs about 280 people.

Treger Products is part of the privately-owned Treger Group of companies and has been operating in Zimbabwe since 1911.

It has five manufacturing divisions — Monarch Steel, Kango Products, Treger Plastics, Zimbabwe Grain Bag and Treger Harare.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

Listed wines and spirits maker, African Distillers (Afdis), aims to remain profitable and deliver value to all shareholders in the short, medium and long term, despite the harsh economic environment obtaining in the country.

Afdis managing director Cecil Gombera told NewsDay Business that even though things were tough in the country, they will continue to make profit.

“We remain optimistic that we will be able to continue to supply the market with most of our brands. There will always be a market for quality alcoholic beverages such as ours and, therefore, we will endeavour to maintain presence in all our product categories,” Gombera said.

“We aim to remain profitable and deliver value to all shareholders in the short, medium and long term. Our new product development efforts will always remain active as we respond to market needs. Product innovation will play a key role as we seek to enhance our market share,” he said.

On 2019, Gombera added: “Volumes have declined as consumer real disposable incomes remained under immense pressure. Access to foreign currency remains a major constraint.”

Afdis recorded a volume drop of 10% for the third quarter and nine months to December 31, 2019.

The demand for ciders and white spirits, however, remained strong.

Zimbabwe’s trading environment is characterised by high inflation and an unstable exchange rate with limited availability of foreign currency on the formal market. Consumer spending is constrained by low disposable incomes as salary and wage adjustments continue to lag the increases in prices of goods and services.

BY PATRICIA SIBANDA

HWANGE villagers are losing livestock to lions that are roaming the Jambezi area, with fears of possible attacks on humans rising.

Chief Mvutu confirmed that lions were terrorising the area and called on authorities to intervene.

“The place where this is happening is called Ndlovu area and the animals are feasting on . . . livestock. It is so sad because there is nothing we can do about the wild animals and besides we have nothing we can use to stop them from coming near our homesteads,” Sibanda said.

Sibanda said villagers were not allowed to kill the carnivores so their numbers keep growing.

“There are laws that restrict us from killing or striking any wild animal. If only it was long back we would not be having such incidents occurring,” he said.

He advised villagers to report such matters to the responsible authorities.

Chief Jonah Neluswi Shana said elephants were a problem in his area.

He said Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority (ZimParks) officials who recently came to assess the area put down a stray elephant.

“The elephants are raiding our fields and eating everything, our bulrush millet which was ripening was destroyed,” he said.

ZimParks spokesperson Tinashe Farawo said the problem was with the people who direct their livestock into restricted areas.

“The people are driving their livestock straight into forestry areas. People should try by all means not to allow their domestic animals into restricted areas. Lions and elephants live in the bush hence one will definitely find them there if they visit such places,” Farawo said, while urging villagers to report all wild animal sightings.

BY GARIKAI MAFIRAKUREVA

SHANGANI community members in Chikombedzi have accused non-Shangani speaking people of elbowing them out of and hijacking developmental programmes, allegedly with the blessing of government officials.

Raising concerns at a community radio stations sensitization workshop held at Chikombedzi Primary School in Chiredzi South constituency over the weekend, the Shangani expressed displeasure at the amount of time allotted to Shangani programmes on national radios compared to Shona and Ndebele.

Director of the Centre for Cultural Development Initiatives – Gaza Trust, Hebert Phikela, asked the Information permanent secretary Ndavaningi Mangwana, who was also facilitating the meeting why Shangani was given a small slot on radio.

Mangwana said the government’s initiative to issue licences to 10 language-based community radio stations was to correct the wrongs of the country’s former colonial masters who bundled minority languages into generic languages like Shona, Ndebele and Manyika.

“We are trying to correct the imbalance that was created by our former colonial masters. That is why we want you to have your own Shangani radio station,” Mangwana said.

“We have 16 official languages, but during the colonial era the Smith regime grouped minority languages under common languages depending on the area’s geographical position. The Kalangas, Tongas, Nambiyas and others fell under Matebeland even if we all know that they are not Ndebeles.”

However, Phikela felt the imbalances will continue to exist because other Shangani-speaking people are dotted around the country and will not be able to access Shangani frequency broadcasting from Chikombedzi.

On the issue of hijacked programmes, Mangwana said the government has no control over what would have been given to the community except if they were policy matters.
“If as a community you fail to organise yourselves and come up with a radio station run by your own people; where do you think the government should come in? As a ministry we will only intervene on policy matters,” he said.

The Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) legal adviser, Joice Kupukai then unpacked the legal requirements to be met before the issuance of a broadcasting licence. Another BAZ official, Thabeth Mazorodze explained to the participants, who included community leaders, village heads and chiefs representatives, what content compliance is all about.

Most parts of Chiredzi border Mozambique and South Africa, and cannot access the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation’s radio and television transmission and rely on stations from either Mozambique or South Africa.

BY PATRICIA SIBANDA

BULAWAYO City Council has been operating without a credit control and debt collection policy document and relies on council resolutions which has compromised revenue collection, Finance director Kempton Ndimande has said.

The local authority has been failing to collect debts from ratepayers.

“The financial director (Ndimande) reported that council had been operating without a documented credit control and debt collection policy. It had been relying on council resolutions, the Urban Councils Act, the water and sewerage by-laws and other pieces of legislation. A credit policy had been crafted with valuable input from the chamber secretary, human capital department and the procurement management unit,” the minutes read.

Latest figures show that BCC is owed over $189 million by ratepayers, including government departments and the private sector, a situation it says has negatively impacted on service delivery.

However, the latest council minutes indicate that ward 19 councillor Alderman Clayton Zana had pointed out that the credit control and debt collection policy was taking too long to be implemented.

Zana claimed that ratepayers were committed to settling bills which called for the urgent implementation of the debt collection policy.

“The reason why residents had not been paying their debts is because of the delay in implementing the policy. Residents take advantage of the economic situation and have stopped paying their debts,” Zana told council.

Finance committe chairperson councillor Mlandu Ncube said debtors should be engaged before the implementation of the policy.

“The policy idea has always been there, so debtors should be engaged before the implementation to avoid any inconveniences with them,” the minutes read.

BCC chamber secretary Sikhangele Zhou and council legal officer Stekiwa Mugiya said the credit policy would help avoid accumulation of debt.

“It provides uniformity, clarity and transparency,” Zhou said.

She hoped that the policy would address all classes of debtors, saying adopting the policy would avoid unmanageable accumulation of debts and also protect residents against unfair treatment by some office bearers.

“The wording of clause 61 of the policy created a condition precedent to the assumption of office by a councillor or and this would be revisited to reflect the desire to have the councillor maintain up to date accounts while in office,” minutes read.

Bulawayo town clerk Christopher Dube seconded the adoption of the policy and confirmed that it would cater for all groups who include the vulnerable.

“Council was not able to deliver services effectively because there was no credit policy in place. The revenue collection was very poor. The challenge had been that ratepayers who had the capacity to pay did not want to pay their debts. Those who had been paying timeously were no longer paying. It was now a requirement that council should have such a policy,” Dube
said, according to the minutes.

INTERVIEW:VENERANDA LANGA

TAG a Life International (TaLI) director Nyaradzo Mashayamombe (NM) says she would not sit and watch while the rights of the girl child continue to be trampled upon, and while young girls continue to be forced into early child marriages by adults. She talks to NewsDay (ND) senior Parliamentary reporter Veneranda Langa.

ND: Who is Nyaradzo Mashayamombe and what is your work centred on?

NM: Nyari Mashayamombe is passionate about justice, fairness, is interested in community building and to see families thriving. My work on girls, young women’s rights and youths is centred on the realisation that for communities to thrive, we need to begin with the roots, and the roots are the youths. In Shona they say “gavi rinobva kumasvuuriro” meaning if you miss the roots on anything you won’t achieve much. So the girl child is the most vulnerable in our communities due to both religious and cultural practices that ensure that at a very young age, a girl is rewarded for opportunities passing her by.

We hear words like “good girl” or “good woman”, which often means a person who is not vocal, who people can walk all over, a person when hit by her husband must keep quiet, a person who should not lean in to opportunities. So I realised that girls need to be assisted in realising that this is a lie that ensures they are going to be left behind in life and increase their vulnerabilities. So this is my passion.

I was born in a family of eight children and I am the last. My rural background and challenges while growing up shaped me to care about others, especially girls and to want to help.

Nyari is not only a Human Rights Activist; she’s also a businesswoman with a company called Identities Media Holdings, as well as a singer and song writer. I also like to refer to myself as a global citizen.

ND: What is Tag a Life International (TaLI) all about and what kind of issues do you address?

NM: TaLI is a girls and young women’s organisation that wishes to see the world as a safe place where we are treated equally, have access to the same opportunities and where girls have the autonomy to make decisions about their own lives. TaLI is working for a world where girls and young women have a voice, are able to exercise their own agency, claim their rights, assist others to do the same while building movements to influence leadership.

Our current work includes developing girls and young women into leaders through the Leadership Economic Mentorship Hub (LEMHs), a one-year leadership programme which trains them in personal leadership, human rights, democracy and governance, change making and working with local leaders in their communities. We do this while linking girls with real advocacy work and interacting with Members of Parliament exposed to our world of networks.

One example of the critical work TaLI does is around advocacy and influencing laws that protect girls and young women as well as the youths. Just recently TaLI influenced a policy through the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education to ensure every child has access to basic education. Informed by community needs, we engaged with leadership locally, regionally and internationally.

Another critical component of our work is the provision of psycho-social support to victims of abuse. TaLI has linked more than 350 girls and young women with post trauma support such as medical services, basic counselling, police, supporting them through court, family reintegration and other referrals.

ND: How do you view children’s rights in Zimbabwe?

NM: We have seen some improvements, but we could do more in prioritising children’s rights in our nation. By now basic education should be secured and delivered on. The budget for education is mainly going to teachers and personnel salaries and little towards children’s education. Right now the justice system is not necessarily assisting girls and young women on vulnerabilities such as rape and instances where older men take advantage of and make them wives at a young age.

Currently the police force is not exactly moved by 15 or 16-year-old girls who they say are “consenting” to getting married to older men. The role of the police must be to nullify such “child sexual exploitation and abuse” which is being masqueraded as “child marriages”. The justice system is also corrupt giving sentences as little as three months or community service for older men who are bedding minors and exploiting them as wives.

ND: Your organisation has done a lot of advocacy work on the rights of the girl child. How successful have you been in empowering the girl child? What are the problem areas?

NM: For us it is about tagging one life at a time. There are more than 1 000 girls who we have trained since we started, more than 800 boys who we also trained to be champions of girls, more than 800 community peer educators who we trained to educate and raise awareness in their communities on girls rights are a testimony. Due to resources, we may not be able to go everywhere, but we believe when one life is tagged — that we have touched another 100 as we know they will touch others. And as we have now elevated our work to fighting for the rights of girls such as education, the more than 500 000 children we know, about 52% to be girls will never be the same again. Funding remains a key challenge.

ND: You have also fought for access to education for all children including the poor who cannot afford school fees. Have you made any inroads in convincing the government to respect constitutional rights to education?

NM: As you will know we just successfully advocated for a policy the “Secretary’s Circular 3 of 2019” which came out as a result of TaLI efforts and amazing leadership of MPs such as Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga who pushed Parliament for us to be heard. The listening ear and the changing attitudes in the ministry of Education and the support we got from former Primary and Secondary Education minister Paul Mavima, and especially ministry’s secretary and woman of action Tumisang Thabela, the rights of children to access education were made possible. There was also unwavering support of organisations passionate about children’s rights such as Zimbabwe National Coalition on the Rights of the Child, Justice For Children, Mambure Trust, Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe and Education Coalition of Zimbabwe, among many children’s rights organisations that rallied behind us in achieving this policy. We have really depended on the support of global partners such as Global Fund for Women, Urgent Action Fund Africa and CIVICUS to achieve this policy.

ND: You are also very outspoken on women’s rights and in the fight against gender-based violence. What kind of situations have you encountered as a women’s rights activist?

NM: I generally grew up in a very challenging rural community, and there things were worse for girls. I have had to fight for my own life and make adult decisions at an early age so that I would not be taken advantage of by a male teacher who proposed love to me. I have also endured violence at the hands of relatives for the work that I do, but the work must be done, and no girl, woman, child or male should endure violence; we should all live in harmony.

ND: What can you say have been your challenges as an activist?

NM: It think they are on many levels; doing the work is challenging because you are challenging power, those who are exerting illegal power over others through abuse will want to continue in doing this.

Thus I become their enemy. But also one gets socially stigmatised as people become super sensitive around you both at home and sometimes within the religious circles. It’s a hard job.