The Sunday Mail
Business Reporter
THERE was a time when prominent businessman, Mr Thompson Dondo could spend almost the whole day seated in his father’s small Vauxhall car even though it was parked at home. He would just sit in the car together with his brothers feeling good and admiring the vehicle.
Then there was a time when he got very depressed after failing to buy his dream car, a Nissan Sunny Box.
“I got very depressed and spent the whole day in my blankets wondering how and why I had failed to raise the amount that was required. This was the car of my dreams and it was gone. I was crushed,” says Mr Dondo who is now the chief executive officer of Impala Car Rentals.
He was recently chosen by the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries as the 1st Runner up in the Businessman of the Year category.
Born in Gweru some 45 years ago, Mr Dondo grew up in Chivhu where life was not that rosy. He did his primary education in Chivhu and later moved to Kwekwe. After his O-levels he worked for a few supermarkets but later trained as a nurse at Harare Hospital. He then worked as a nurse in Chipinge for a year and came back to Harare.
“When I came back to Harare together with my friend Wilson we started a nursing agency in 1999 which we used to call Forest Wills. We did quite well but then the Government later banned this kind of business.
“We closed this nursing agency and relocated to Nyanga where we started a private clinic which was also doing very well. We were the only private clinic in Nyanga at that time. After a year, I then decided to go to the UK because my idea was to go and work so that I could build a big surgery in Nyanga. I went to the UK in 2001,” said Mr Dondo.
From a young age, Mr Dondo grew up with the drive to become a successful business person.
“You see, part of my primary school days I used to stay with my father. He was a strict church person. He would tell me about his problems growing up and so on. He used to tell me about maricho avaiita to survive. He would always tell me that “I don’t want you to go through what I went through.” Sometimes during pay days he would give me his pay slip and say ‘here is my pay slip, help me do the monthly budget.’ It was about $400 and I could see that my father was struggling.
“This touched me a lot. I said to myself I want to work hard in life. You know I wasn’t one of those very intelligent students but I worked very hard. I had nine passes, including 2As during my O-Level and during that time passing five O-levels was quite some achievement,” said Dondo.
He went to the UK and worked as a driver in London for a Zimbabwean businessman but after a while he decided to start his own business in Middlesbrough. He however continued working as a part time nurse.
“After about eight months, the business was booming. However, most of my employees were Zimbabweans. Most of them didn’t have proper documents to live in the UK but I employed them on humanitarian grounds. About 40 percent of my employees were from Zimbabwe. It made business sense for me because Zimbabweans are hard workers and they were prepared to work odd hours.
“One day, one of my employees was arrested and I was eventually also arrested for employing munhu asina mapepa akakwana (someone with no proper immigration documents). This issue was blown out of proportion and we had to close the company. I went back to my old nursing job but the UK Home Office was always on my case and it was not easy to get a proper job. I then said to myself, “why should I go through this?” The barrister who was handling my case even advised me to come back to Zimbabwe. I then decided to come back home.
“My company had closed and so I had no money. I then remembered that I had bank cheques that had bounced and I applied to the bank for refund and the bank gave me seven thousand pounds. It was a lot of money. I bought four Japanese vehicles and by the time I came back to Zimbabwe I only had two thousand pounds. I had bought the house that is the Impala Head Office now using the Homelink facility. However, I was still paying the mortgage and this is one of the things that was troubling me as I came back home. I didn’t know how I was going to continue paying the mortgage.
“One of my very good friends, Marvelous Mhasvi had suggested to me that I should start a car renting business in Zimbabwe. That’s why I had bought the four vehicles. Personally, I wanted to start a housing agency but I took Marvelous’ advice. I came back to Zimbabwe alone in 2007. My wife and kids followed later.
“When we came back, we were staying in Glen View 7. It was very difficult. The sudden change of environment. Can you imagine we were staying in a posh area in the UK and now straight to Glen View 7? The kids could not understand it, but I remained positive. I also felt I had more freedom in Zimbabwe than in the UK,” said Dondo.
After starting the business with just four vehicles, Mr Dondo got his first contract from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and from there the heavens opened up.
Impala is now one of the biggest car rental companies in the country. The company recently opened a branch in South Africa and Mr Dondo says there are now over 200 vehicles at Kempton Park. He says plans are underway to open branches in Zambia and Botswana.
“My belief and philosophy has always been that ‘you can do better, just be patient.’ I am what I am today because of my background. Takakura tichitambudzika. Takakura tichiona mota dzichingopfuura nepamba pedu. Besides the background, I think I am what I am today because of prayer,” said Mr Dondo adding that he pays school and medical fees for 57 orphans from his rural home in Chivhu.
He said although his company is operating in a “challenging environment, I refuse to let any member of my team to talk about the economy and politics. I always tell them, ‘let’s do what we know best.’ We don’t want to be boggled down by things we can’t control.”
He added: “At Impala I am not a boss. I am a leader because we swim together. We make collective decisions so that we share the blame when something goes wrong.”
