Online Reporter
Raymond Jaravaza [email protected]
AT the turn of the millennium Amos Dube, then in his early 50s, lost his job at one of the biggest factories that manufactured stoves, cookware and construction materials and has never been formally employed since then.
For a man with five children and a wife that needed to be taken care of, unemployment did not mean that he had stopped being the family breadwinner.
With no meaningful formal education to talk about, Dube had to make a life changing decision to continue putting food on the table for his immediate and extended family in Nkulumane suburb and rural home in Kezi.
He turned to a trade that he never imagined in his wildest dreams he would ever join and that ‘job’ was a car guard at the Bulawayo Centre — a bustling modern mall sitting in the heart of the city’s central business district (CBD) that boasted of bars, clothing outlets, restaurants, a movie theatre and jewellery shops that attracted hundreds of shoppers at any given time.
Dube, affectionately known as Mthembu to the hundreds of motorists who entrusted the security of their vehicles in his safe hands, has been a permanent feature in the parking spaces of the Bulawayo Centre for the last 25 years.
It’s a job that started as an occupation of convenience to make a few dollars a day in 2001 but two-and-a-half decades later is still the lifeline of the Dube family.
“I’m not as energetic as I was when I started this job so many years ago when I lost my job at Monarch Industries after the company retrenched a lot of workers at the height of the economic downturn in the early 2 000s,” he told Chronicle while on duty on Friday.
“No one actually employed me to do this job. I realised that drivers needed someone they could trust to take care of their cars while they shopped at the Bulawayo Centre Shopping Mall and I filled that gap.
“For the last 25 years I have survived on the benevolence of motorists who park their vehicles here and I would like to thank them for making it possible for me to take care of my family for all these years.”
When he started the self-employed job at the Bulawayo Centre, some family members mocked him for turning himself into a beggar but he did not despair.
“I had a wife and five children to take care of so whatever family and friends said behind my back did not matter at all.
“Drivers were happy that I secured their vehicles against break-ins and they were happy to leave tokens of appreciation for my services and I slowly started establishing a good name for myself with motorists that parked their cars here,” he said.
As months turned into years and later to decades, Dube became a loved and appreciated figure at Bulawayo Centre.
Cases of break-ins into vehicles in the area declined under his watch but that also created enemies.
“I became unpopular with boys known for breaking into cars in Bulawayo. I carry this sjambok for a reason and that is to deal with criminals trying to break into cars under my watch.
“Even if someone does not pay me, I still keep an eye on their car because it’s a job that I have grown to love in the last 25 years,” he said.
Dube narrated how some criminals would try to hoodwink him into ‘abandoning’ a vehicle that they would have targeted to break into by paying him to watch a decoy car far away from their target.
“In the past car radios were targeted because they were valuable to those boys who walk around the parking area looking for cars with radios.
“They would try to draw me away from a vehicle with a car radio but if I grew suspicious I would not move an inch,” he added.
The arrival of Tendy Three Investment (TTI) into the city centre paid parking business has greatly reduced his earnings but the elderly man still works up everyday to work.
He works from 7AM to 5PM but in cold days he s to work around 9AM when it is a bit warmer.
“I have three grandchildren to take care of so I will continue doing my job. I still have customers who pay me to watch over their cars so I don’t have a reason to stay at home,” he added.
As the interview was about to conclude, a happy motorist handed over a US$1 note to the old man and drove away, proof that Dube and his grandkids will not be sleeping on empty stomachs.
