Difficult childhood inspires businessman

Sikhumbuzo Moyo recently in Victoria Falls 

BEING deprived of urban education and having to walk for 15km to a nearby school after the death of his father, motivated Mr Khumbulani Tshambo to make it his mandate to bring schools closer to as many children in Hwange district as possible.

To date, Mr Tshambo, who runs a touring company in the resort town of Victoria Falls called People Link Tours, has managed to have a hand in the construction and refurbishment of 11 schools and two clinics over an 11-year period at a total cost of US$1 million through his Buy a Brick Foundation that also encompasses Irock Lodge. Hwange district now has a total of 126 schools composed of 93 primary and 33 secondary schools.

“I lost my father who was a police officer while I was doing Grade One and that unfortunate occurrence saw our family relocating to the rural areas in Sidobe, just outside Victoria Falls but there was no nearby school which forced me to walk almost 15km daily, imagine at that young age. This is what then pushed me to vow that never again should another child endure the same agony while in pursuit of education,” said Mr Tshambo, who was born a year after the country attained Independence.

Since 2008, his companies have been involved in the building and refurbishment of schools such as BH 36 Primary School, Masue Primary, Dadani Vocational, Breakfast, Chimbombo, Simakande, Vulindlela Secondary, Sidobe Secondary, Batoka Secondary, Matetsi Secondary and Cheumba Primary School, as well as Leonah and Batoka clinics.

According to the Hwange District Schools Inspector, Mr Tshambo is already in the process of turning Matetsi Secondary School into a low-cost boarding school, probably to mitigate against human animal conflict since the school is in a prime game area.

“Yes, other schools might have been there but they received massive facelifts that literally saw them becoming new. We don’t just build classrooms but proper cottages for teachers and also try to have internet connection for easy communication because we are now living in the world of Internet Communication Technology.  All this is motivated by the fact that I know the hardships that a rural child goes through because I experienced it first-hand. I also want to empower educationally, people from my area of origin so that they can be self-sustaining and be able to secure jobs from the many companies that are in Victoria Falls,” said Mr Tshambo.

He said outside constructing schools, he endeavours to make sure locals have income generating projects so as to be able to pay school fees for their children.

“There is a feeding programme that sees schools being supplied with maize but this programme requires schools to foot their own transport costs to carry this maize. We assist by providing transport and later use our mobile grinding mill where we go to these schools and grind the maize into mealie-meal,” said Mr Tshambo.

He praised the Hwange Rural District Council for being steadfast in providing land for the schools’ construction programme.

“Like any teething issues, there was some mistrust when I started this ambitious programme with some even suspecting political motives behind all this but after a while, they realised that we were far from that and politics was not on our agenda. I must state that our relationship with the RDC (Hwange) now is just so excellent, we are more like partners and that is good for development,” said Mr Tshambo.

Acting Matabeleland North provincial education director Mr Jabulani Mpofu confirmed that they were working hand-in-hand with Mr Tshambo, describing him as one of their biggest partners.

“He is one of our good partners, we are working so well with him. He does a lot of philanthropic work in the district and we are so happy,” said Mpofu.

Besides his philanthropic work, Mr Tshambo is also an avid sports lover who religiously supports Bulawayo  football giants Highlanders.