The Sunday Mail
THE discordant symphony of the clanking of hammers against wood and the heaving sound of hacksaws is a signature sound of the economic activity driving the Glen View Furniture Complex in Harare.
Inside the complex, there is almost always an army of workers armed with claw hammers, planers, nails and an assortment of tools indefatigably working around the clock to carve life out of wood.
Equally, outside the complex there is also always a melee of enterprising people seeking to feed off the endless activities surrounding the site.
Hundreds of young men – popularly known as magombiro (touts) – chase after motorists driving by and try to entice them to buy any one of several goods and services.
Anyone slowing down must be interested, and motorists are prodded towards the furniture displays that hold an array of wardrobes, kitchen units, room dividers, beds and sofas.
The touts charge what they want to charge for furniture that is not theirs. And then after getting the cash, they hand over to the carpenters what they want and pocket the difference.
The touts have become a living nightmare for carpenters, inserting themselves as unwanted middlemen.
Tools and quality
Prospects of making a decent living continue to attract men and women, the young and the old to the complex.
The assortment of skills usually leads to forging of symbiotic relationships, where one carpenter supplies another with an item that is needed to make a piece of furniture better.
Ms Esther Mbangana — now in her third year at the complex — works with her brother Mr Tichaona Makaza.
She mainly does non-taxing jobs such as sofa seat cushions, which are subsequently sold to those that manufacture sofa frames.
Blessing Mashingaidze (21), who completed A-Level last year at Bangure High School in Buhera and attained 12 points in Business Studies, Geography and Economics, is doing part-time work at the complex.
Blessing intends to abandon this trade once he gets enough funds to pursue tertiary studies.
Nearly a decade has passed since Government established the furniture complex in the wake of an urban clean-up exercise to bring order to Harare.
But there are still reservations on the quality of furniture produced by some of these carpenters.
A lot of their products have a relatively short lifespan when compared to those sold by established furniture outlets.
It is not hard to see the reason why.
Most carpenters at the complex say they neither have any professional qualifications in woodwork, nor have they received an apprenticeship from old hands.
Most skills are acquired as they coast along.
That is not to say it is all bad. Many of the workers here supply shops in the CBD, and their products serve the lower end of the market very well as they are affordable.
A major problem they face is that of tools.
There is a world of difference between equipment such as nail guns in modern factories and the hammers that workers here swing merrily throughout the day.
This has a bearing on quality and deeper-pocketed customers are unimpressed by the finishings.
New skills
Mr Moses Dakacha, who learnt the trade at a vocational training centre in Birchenough, Manicaland, says he has been at it since 2004. And he says his work gets better by the day.
“I learnt most of the skills at work because at school there weren’t sufficient tools to use. At school, there is only basic stuff that is done such as joining planks,” said Mr Dakacha.
All the tools he uses are manual as there is no electricity at the complex.
Other furniture makers who haven’t been in the business as long time are already accomplished woodworkers.
Mr Ngwarai Chadzimura (35) has been in the business for four years.
The skills that he uses are from Murambinda Secondary in Buhera where he studied Woodwork.
“I did not get formal education in carpentry apart from what I learnt at secondary school. I have just continued from what I learnt but I can tell you that I am doing my job well,” said Mr Chadzimura.
Power shortages are definitely a limiting factor. In some cases, workers use generators for their power tools.
Women are also deep in the works.
Mrs Masleen Sithole (41), who runs Mai Sithole Home’s Furnishers, is content with the workmanship of her company’s products.
“We produce durable products here. Anyone who claims that our products are poorly done and are of inferior quality does not know what they are talking about.
“For instance, the boards that we use in making room dividers and kitchen units are stronger than those on kitchen units made in industries and eventually sold in town,” asserted Mrs Sithole.
Mrs Sithole started the business with her husband in 1994 and has continued with the trade eight years after his death.
She outsources some of the services she cannot offer.
There are some bad apples at the complex.
The Sunday Mail Business saw some carpenters recycling old mattress springs. The springs are straightened without tensioning them with specialised equipment.
Some clients say some of the beds made here do not last beyond a year.
Nightmare touts
A big challenge at the complex, as anywhere else in the economy, is that of the lack of liquidity.
People do not have the disposable income they once had and this means less is spent on furniture.
According to Mr Chadzimura — who makes beds, wardrobes and kitchen units — the period between January to June last year was better than this year in terms of sales.
Another carpenter, Mr Christopher Musapurwe (41), said selling four units per month has suddenly become a major achievement worthy of celebration.
“Business is low these days, we thought it was going to be better during the tobacco selling season but that has not happened. Selling four items per month is a miracle, you would have excelled beyond measure,” said Mr Musapurwe.
Mr Robson Gora, who hails from Mhondoro, said the business is no longer as rewarding as it used to be. He said he bought cars in 2006 because business was booming, but things have since changed.
And the touts are not helping.
“We (used to) talk to our customers on a one-on-one basis, but now we cannot. There is this group of young man who ambush our customers along the road near this place.
“When they come with the customer, they charge whatever amount they want. For instance, a product I am selling for US$120 can be sold for US$100 and I can be given US$90.
“Under those circumstances, I end up getting a profit of say US$2 and the gombiros get the rest. You find that, at the end of the day, they might have about US$500 while we go home with US$20,” said Mr Gora.
He added that revenues generated from the business is now only sufficient to send children to school and pay rentals.
Some carpenters said the touts claimed to be Zanu-PF members and the police appeared tired of chasing after them.
“I know Zanu-PF does not work that way. Our minister (of SMEs and Co-operatives Development Sithembiso Nyoni) should come here and address us,” said Mr Gora.
On the touts, he added: “The profits they are getting should be accruing to us and if you ask around, I don’t think you will get a carpenter who has acquired a (residential) stand. We are not saying they should be thrown away, but they should come here and work with us in the complex. We cannot have a situation whereby they reap where they have not worked.”
Mrs Sithole concurred.
“We just sit here as (touts) sell our products and in some cases they never bring the money back to us. You cannot demand the money because police do not seem to help.
“Police officers have come here on several occasions but they have failed to remove these people. Going back to report to the police does not help anymore.”
Who’s in charge?
Operators at the complex do not pay anything to the Harare City Council.
It is understood that there are individuals who own the land on which the activities take place and carpenters only put up sheds, for which they pay rentals to their landlords and landladies.
The carpenters said they pay US$3 monthly as an “administration fee”, while others said it is for “storerooms” owned by administrators.
The carpenters said they do not know if the administrators remit any money to council.
No comment could be obtained from the administrators as they were said to be away by people who appeared to be their agents as they interrogated The Sunday Mail Business on why we wanted to talk to them.
Mr Doubt Mhike — said to be the management chairman — could not be reached on his mobile phone.
Making ends meet
Despite the administrative opacity of the operations, for those willing to put their backs into it, this has been a rewarding business.
Mrs Sithole owns a residential stand in Kambuzuma and commutes every day to her workplace in Glen View.
“I stay in Kambuzuma at my stand which I bought for US$3 500 from proceeds of this business.
“I also have four cattle in my rural home in Buhera,” she said.
Mrs Sithole has four children, three of whom are still in school.
She is keen to spread to other towns, especially where there are mining and/or farming activities.
Mr Dakacha built a decent rural home and has nothing significant in Harare.
The carpenters plead with Government to avail loans to them so that they boost their stocks.
They are not asking for much. Anything between US$1 000 and US$1 500 will do the trick for them.
Mr Musapurwe added: “We might want Government assistance but for as long as customers are not coming, there is no way we can survive.
“However, if we can get about US$1 500 we can actively do our business. We want to make products and sell them quickly so as to make profits.”
Their skills could do with honing too, in addition to connecting electricity to the complex and assisting the carpenters to acquire better tools and equipment.
