The Sunday Mail
Lincoln Towindo
She emerged from humble beginnings – far from the hustle and bustle of city commerce – rising to recognition as the best in business in 2015. Her life story is full of anecdotes of how she defied the odds to be among Zimbabwe’s most prudent businesspeople. Perhaps enterprise has always been in First Lady Amai Grace Mugabe’s DNA. A confessed workaholic, Amai Mugabe has never looked back since her formative years in primary school when she was already operating a small poultry business.
“Business-wise; I work very hard. I have always been business-minded,” she told The Sunday Mail last year in an interview to celebrate her 50th birthday. And on June 30, 2016 – some three weeks before she turned 51 – Amai Mugabe received the 2015 Outstanding Value Addition Investment Award from the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce.
The award recognises the work she has done on her primary school, children’s home and Gushungo Dairy, which is the second-largest dairy processor in Southern Africa. Amai Mugabe Junior School has top-of-the-range facilities with an enrolment capacity of 1 000 pupils.
Gushungo Dairy has brought products such as sour milk, yoghurt and ice-cream onto the market, competing remarkably with domestic and foreign brands. ZNCC adjudicators considered the massive infrastructure investments on all projects and nominated Amai Mugabe as the deserving recepient of the accolade.
It has been a long journey of diligence and dedication that began in Chikomba, the First Lady’s rural home. Her father died when she had barely completed schooling, and it appeared life’s buffeting winds would overwhelm her and her siblings.
However, a young Grace completed high school through her entrepreneurial acumen. She told The Sunday Mail in last year’s interview: “When I was very young in primary school, I used to keep chickens – the road-runners – the free-range chickens. I used to rear them at home and sell them.
“Mine were very prolific. I don’t eat chicken so they did very well. We also used to do other things in terms of growing vegetables. Life was tough in the rural areas, but we managed to make ends meet. Our father looked after us very well; so I have always been a person with business acumen.
“Even when a started working in the President’s Office, I used to do other things on the side; selling wares at the market.
“I can crochet, I can knit, I design; I like designing. I am not a person who likes to b e idle. I don’t just sit. I do lots of work; I work hard.”
She continued: “I am always doing something. It’s either I am reading, sewing or cleaning. I never sit down in the house. I am a person who loves working; I am a workaholic and keep to myself most of the time, working.
“So, I decided that I would not want to sit on my laurels, relaxing, but I want also to do what others are doing. I see people working, achieving a lot in life and I said, ‘I did not have the opportunity even to do a degree because my father died when I was 19.’”
Amai Mugabe said she used enterprise to fund her education.
Taking it one step at a time, she graduated with her first degree in Chinese Language at the People’s University of China in 2011.
Her philanthropic work saw her establish a children’s home in Mazowe and next to it the massive junior school.
Two years ago, she graduated with a Doctor of Philosophy degree at the University of Zimbabwe. Her thesis focused on the changing social structure and functions of the family after conducting a case study on children’s homes in Zimbabwe.
Accepting her award, she said, “My projects began on a modest footing and I expanded them in phases over the years. I am especially grateful for the support I received from my husband and the entire family and friends who gave me advice and the encouragement to believe in the projects I set my mind on.”
