Ambassador Musaka’s journey of service

AFTER 40 years of serving Zimbabwe with pride and dignity in diplomacy, Ambassador Pavelyn Tendai Musaka is retiring from Government at the end of the year. She is not hanging up her boots, however, as she is venturing into fashion designing and entrepreneurship skilling.

Ambassador Musaka joined the Government when she was just over 25 years old and rose to become the Chief Director of Protocol and Conferencing Services in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. She also served as the ministry’s first female spokesperson and broke many barriers in her professional journey.

She took Saturday Chronicle through her experience in diplomacy and plans for the future during the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Trade’s pre-retirement workshop held in Bulawayo on Tuesday.

“Having done all that kind of work in one ministry I’m a very satisfied ambassador. As I’m leaving I know the next generation will carry on from where I left. I want to take this opportunity to thank my Government for giving me this opportunity to have served that long. I feel it is also my time to give back to mother Zimbabwe,” said Ambassador Musaka.

She was posted as a diplomat in three missions: Canada, United Kingdom and Ghana. She said her most memorable experience was in Ghana, where she spent 12 years and learned about the business acumen and productivity of the West African people. She also discovered her passion for fashion designing and attended classes to hone her skills.

She said she is proud to have been a torch bearer for the younger generations in serving the country and she is grateful to the Government for the opportunity. She said she is eager to leave the Government and join the private sector, where she can use her knowledge and experience to empower the youth and reduce unemployment.

“As I’m retiring I’m going to start a new career in something that I do and enjoy, that is fashion designing. I want to impart what I learned to the next generation and I want to contribute to reducing unemployment levels in our country through my training,” she said.

She also said she has a company that she started 13 years ago, when she was still serving in Ghana and she is working with Empower Bank on training and skilling young people to be entrepreneurial. She said Zimbabweans should embark on more entrepreneurial opportunities as the Government and private sector cannot absorb everyone.

“That is what we are missing in Zimbabwe, we are doing everything else but entrepreneurship skills. We need to do more,” she said.

Ambassador Musaka said apart from fashion designing, she is also involved in farming and will use her retirement to also contribute to national food security.

She said it was important for workers to always plan for the time they will retire or leave employment.

Ambassador Masuka said while in Government she also served as a human resources officer which enabled her to appreciate that termination of employment is inevitable within an employee’s lifespan.

“The reason why in my case it was so obvious at some time I served as human resources head. I actually gave a lot of letters terminating employment to officers, I knew one day someone was going to terminate my employment and my letter came this year,” said Ambassador Masuka.

“I turned 65 in April and they added another six months while they were looking for my successors and now that my successors have been identified I’m happily handing over to them. For everyone there comes a time when you have to rest so I’ve found something very positive about retirement.” — @nqotshili