IT was a painful journey for Mr Brian Mawoyo when one of the country’s leading telecommunications companies arbitrarily terminated his contract of employment as a senior manager on three months’ notice in 2015.
This followed the infamous July 2015 Zuva Petroleum judgment
on common law contracts of employment.
On the day he lost his job of 10 years, Mr Mawoyo failed to
get up from his bed. He was so traumatised as he struggled to come to terms
with the harsh reality. Due to retrenchment, the debt ridden Mr Mawoyo had to
make several adjustments in his lifestyle, some of which included pulling out
his children from private schools and moving out of their plush home.
His world had completely turned upside down overnight.
However, in a script that reads like the popular Cinderella folk tale, Mr
Mawoyo’s forsaken circumstances suddenly changed to a remarkable tale of
success.
Thanks to a five-minute phone call that Mr Mawoyo made to a
friend who worked for a local seed company. Through that phone call, he managed
to secure seeds on credit, marking the dawn of a new era.
That phone call completely transformed his life and changed
the way he now perceives life. Today, Mr Mawoyo co-owns the country’s largest
producer of seedlings, Spinyard Seedlings. The company is also the sole
distributor of Hazera seeds in Zimbabwe.
Hazera is an Israel based renowned global seed company that
breeds, develops, produces and markets varieties and seeds in a wide range of
vegetable crops around the world.
“I started this company when I lost my job during the
infamous job meltdown in 2015 when most people lost their jobs on three months’
notice. I used to work for one of the country’s largest telecommunications
companies in Zimbabwe as a senior manager for close to 10 years.” said Mr
Mawoyo.
“I woke up one day and there was no job and it was
difficult time for me and my family because we had debt and mortgages. I had to
pull out my kids from the good schools that they were going to, moved out of
our house and rented elsewhere.”
Mr Mawoyo’s strong passion and interest in farming resurged
when he lost his job and today, he has no regrets despite the traumatic
experience that he went through in 2015.
He said he ventured into seedlings production upon
realising that the larger chunk of operating costs went into procurement of
saplings.
“I always had a passion for farming and when I started the
horticulture project and selling the produce to shops such as OK and Pick n Pay
supermarkets I then discovered that my biggest cost was in buying seedlings and
I then decided to make my own seedlings,” he said.
“I partnered with a longtime friend Ronald Marikano and he
inspired me in so many ways and I remember even when I had just been
retrenched, he gave me hope, everything happens for a reason.”
Mr Mawoyo said when they started producing seedlings for
their horticulture project, other farmers started developing an interest in
their seedlings and started buying from them. Because of huge demand, we then
stopped field production and moved into seedlings production full time.
We started with a capacity of producing 365 000 seedlings
per month, which was a small greenhouse and today we are now producing 20
million seedlings per month and we are the biggest producers in the country,”
he said.
Spinyard Seedlings has two sites in Mabelreign and Umwinsidale
in Harare and they recently partnered with the Adventist Development and Relief
Agency (ADRA) in Woodville on the outskirts of Bulawayo where they are
producing at least 1,6 million horticulture seedlings per month targeting
farmers in the Matabeleland region.
Mr Mawoyo said under the Spinyard/ADRA joint project, they
have employed 93 people, most of whom are widows. The company also pays schools
fees to orphans.
“The Woodville seedlings production project is the latest
addition in our group. We have always wanted to empower people because for me
losing a job was quite traumatic. We deliberately took a position to
economically empower widows and orphans. We also pay school fees for our
employees’ children and other orphans out there,” he said.
“The idea of having the Adventist Development and Relief
Agency (ADRA), an NGO arm of the Seventh Day Adventist (SDA) church dovetails
with our vision of empowering people locally. From their end, ADRA seeks to
alleviate hunger and poverty.”
Mr Mawoyo said the world has changed as most NGOs, which
largely relied on receiving offshore funding, are now required to be
innovative. Mr Mawoyo, who is a University of Zimbabwe (UZ) economics graduate,
said although he is not a trained farmer, he relied heavily on reading and
experimenting a lot of things about agriculture. He said Spinyard Seedlings
also trains its clients on how to farm as well as improving in terms of
self-sustainability.
“We approached ADRA and they had this property and we
didn’t have a site in this region and we then offered to partner them because
we wanted to empower people. Our dream is not to just sell seedlings, we also
train farmers on horticulture because many people don’t know how to do proper
horticulture,” he said. “Our main objective in this partnership is to alleviate
poverty, which is our core business and that marries with what we seek to do as
Spinyard. Precisely, that is why we are here in Bulawayo.”
The ADRA/Spinyard project which has been running for six
months and also employs two agronomists, is already making waves in
Matabeleland. The initial capital for the project in Bulawayo is US$60 000.
“We don’t just sell seedlings, we visit our farmers, employ
full time agronomists and our dream is to fund this project and make sure that
our people in Zimbabwe know how to farm and produce quality products, make
money as well as increasing the country’s GDP,” said Mr Mawoyo. “We are so
proud that in such a short space of time I have moved from unemployment to an
employer and to distributing world renowned seed houses. We also import and
distribute construction material for greenhouses from Israel.”
Mr Mawoyo said they have also ventured into a poultry
project, which started with 50 roadrunners and today they have over 5 000
birds. “Roadrunners are indigenous chickens, which offer a healthier organic
option. Unlike broilers, roadrunners are cheaper to rear as they thrive on
natural foods such as grain and insects. We specialise in breeding the Black
Australorps and Koekkoek and we recently introduced Light Sussex, Road Ireland
and these roadrunners are over 5 000 in 18 months,” he said.
“We are excited to be in the southern region and we invite
anyone who would love to be involved in horticulture so that we can visit them
at their farms. Our agronomists are ready to help and we will provide you with
quality seedlings for horticulture produce and selected tree seedlings.”
Mr Mawoyo said Matabeleland region has a potential to be a
serious export hub for the country if its resources are harnessed. Chronicle
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