Determination drives Ndhlukula

founder and managing director Ms Divine Ndhlukula is the success story she is today.
Ms Ndhlukula has managed to overcome many obstacles on her way to starting one of the country’s most successful security firms.
She has managed to hold her own in a male-dominated industry. Growing up, Ms Ndhlukula did not believe in being a failure.
She always wanted to be at the top from her time in school and even among her friends.
“As I was growing up I always enjoyed taking the leading role making sure that things were done properly.
“Another contributing factor was that back at school there was a lot of stereotyping from the male teachers and male classmates who were thinking that there is not much that can be done by a girl child, so I wanted to change that perception,” she said.
Her drive to succeed in a male-dominated world coupled with an entrepreneurial spirit that was inspired by her business-minded parents, who pushed her to start her own business.
“Let me say that right from a tender age, I always told myself and everyone that I was going to start and run my own business which I always envisaged as a large business.
“During my working days I took time to learn about all the critical elements of running a business. I also enrolled for various developmental programmes, one of which was an Entrepreneurial Development Programme, which I did in 1995 and this sharpened my entrepreneurial competencies in a big way.
“I learnt about elements such as opportunity seeking, to goal setting, business planning, networking and so many more. While I was working, I was always running around doing some small business on the side — I was ordering clothes from Harare factories and selling them to colleagues at work. Sometimes, I gave my friends in other companies some clothes to sell on my behalf and I gave them commissions on clothes sold. Within a short while, I had made enough money to buy an eight-tonne truck, which I hired out to a construction company,” she said
Ms Ndhlukula later sold her truck, as she had to rescue her late father’s farm that was on the verge of being auctioned.
This was to be the start of her adventure in business on a full-time basis as she quit her job to focus on farming in 1992.
As fate would have it, her first attempt nearly ended in a disaster after she took out a loan against her house in 1995 to prop up the farming business and invested the money in a maize crop that flopped due to a drought that year.
“I almost lost my house, I then went back to my former employers, Intermarket Insurance (now ZB Insurance), and asked for my job back.
“Since I had been one of their top performers, the company was happy to take me back. In no time I moved into the executive team,” she said.
Her return to working life did dissipate her desire to own and run her own business as she kept on looking for opportunities and one came her way in 1998 in the security sector.
She noted that there was a general lack of professionalism, quality and services in the sector. “There were two distinct groups of security organisations. The first group comprised of the long established and larger companies — there were about five of them at the time.
“They literally had the market to themselves and did not see the need then of meeting the customer’s expectations as they could simply rotate the business among themselves in a cartel-like arrangement.
“The second group was the small emerging or submerging companies which did not have the resource capacity to service big corporations and the multinationals. In short, the decision to start Securico was made on the understanding that only service and value addition was going to carry the day,” she said.
Since its formation, Securico has grown in leaps and bounds to become one of the leading security companies in the country.
It now collects about US$13 million in revenue annually and employs more than 3 400 employees of whom 900 are women.
Securico was the first security company in Zimbabwe to achieve an ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) certification.
Last year the company was the winner of the prestigious Legatum Africa Award for Entrepreneurship.
Other awards won by Ms Ndhlukula include the Zimbabwe Institute of Management Manager of the Year 2003, ZIM Director of the Year 2009 and Zimbabwe Women Filmmakers Business Award, among others.
Despite being one of the top female executives in an industry that is dominated by men, she has managed to conquer all the challenges that come with the job.
“Most people think that to be in this industry you have got to have muscles, but it is not about the  muscles but brains, and a whole lot of determination,” she said.
Turning to the indigenisation drive, Ms Ndhlukula thinks that a lot has to be done to make sure that women are also included in the action plan.
They should be awarded some of the major tenders as well because they can do it not that they are women.
“The Government must make room for women to be included in the indigenous drive that is underway.
“Women are left out due to the fact that business deals are mostly discussed at golf courses and other places like that and very few women attend these because of the roles we have been accorded in the society and the way we have been socialised,” she said.
Ms Ndhlukula was born 52 years ago in Gutu. She did part of her primary school at Zvinavashe in Gutu before she went to Bondolfi Mission.
She later attended St Dominics Chishawasha and Makumbe Mission for her secondary education.
In addition to her accounting qualification she holds a Masters in Business Administration from the Midlands State University, as well as an honourary MBA from the Women’s University in Africa that was conferred on her in recognition of her business leadership and efforts on gender equality.
She draws her inspiration from Women University in Africa vice chancellor Dr Hope Sadza, Mrs Faith Ntabeni-Bhebe and Ms Leah Dauramanzi who are entrepreneurs in their own right.
She says these women have managed to start their own enterprises on their own without taking risks or listening to what people will be saying that a lot of injustice is involved when it comes to women who will be venturing into business.
Her last words to the women out there who would want to venture into business:
“The secret of success is found in one’s daily schedule and my advice to women all the time is if you want a certain future, go out and create it. Conquer your fears, as that is what enslaves most women.
“Opportunities are now galore. We just need to roll up our sleeves, lift our feet, and walk through the door as no one will carry us.”