Chronicle Editor
Tafadzwa Chibukwa, Chronicle Reporter
At the age of 10, he used to sell cigarettes outside beer gardens in Makokoba and Mzilikazi suburbs, an inappropriate endeavour for a child his age. In fact, for any child!
Outrageous, bad and downright ugly as it may look to many, this was the life for Mr Remegious Nkomazana (42) who was unfortunate to be born in a poverty-stricken family.
For most children, this is the age when one is supposed to be playing with toys and trying to grasp concepts at school, not selling a substance that is illegal for under-18s.
Regardless of society’s disapproval, the then-10-year-old Remegious found it exciting and adventurous.
It was a vice that indirectly helped him become the businessman that he is today.
Thirty years down the line, Mr Nkomazana finds himself on a rocking chair, in a big office with space to roam around, a wide desk placed at its heart, a computer, a printer, and neatly arranged papers.
Apparelled in a golf t-shirt, chino trousers and Adidas branded sneakers, Mr Nkomazana has achieved the life he wished for, that is to become one of the influential entrepreneurs in Bulawayo.
There are shelves full of files in the office and at a corner lies a pile of branded stickers for his cookies.
His brand “Bernard Bakeries” has been around for 20 years and has become popular with some Bulawayo residents who proudly call it “isinkwa sabantu“, meaning the “people’s bread.”
In an interview with Chronicle, Mr Nkomazana told of how he built his business from scratch. He said unlike some people who inherit businesses from their parents, he struggled from an early age to get to where he is.
When he was in Grade Four in 1987, his mother, who was a teacher, was retrenched and he felt the need to help her financially hence his decision to become an entrepreneur.
“My mother started gardening and I had to sell vegetables and tomatoes to generate income for survival. I finished O-level in 1995, so for a long period, I was not employed. I had no other knowledge besides baking, it was the only option for me to generate income and help my family earn a living,” he said.
Mr Nkomazana said he was not academically gifted and did not continue with school after completing his O-level. His love and obvious aptitude for baking saw Mr Nkomazana obtaining motivation and capital from a friend who was a tailor.
The friend gave him clothes to sell to get money to buy flour and other ingredients because he didn’t have any qualifications to be in a professional office. Little did he know that this was the beginning of his business empire.
Mr Nkomazana said he started baking at a local bakery called “Mathius Hot Bread or Family bakery” where he got retrenched in the 1990s.
After his retrenchment, he started baking bread in his grandmother’s backyard in Mzilikazi, selling it to the local community.
All changed in the middle of 2000 when he started supplying bread, doughnuts and buns to a growing clientele in Mzilikazi, Makokoba, Nguboyenja and some bakeries in the city centre.
Mr Nkomazana said at that time things were tough in the country and there was a shortage of bread.
Being a focused entrepreneur, he exploited the opportunity and expanded his business and launched his own bakery “Bernard bakery.”
His bakery sold bread at affordable prices. This saw his bakery becoming popular.
He said the bakery, named after his brother, was a reminder of the importance of family.
“I named my bakery after my younger brother, Bernard Nkomazana, because I wanted to keep my business in my family. I saw that naming it after me would confuse people because my name “Remegious” is a bit complicated, it’s not common,” said Mr Nkomazana.
In 13 years of business, Mr Nkomazana managed to accumulate profits from his bakery and built 18 houses in the Mbundane suburb, one in the Selbourne Park suburb and opened two grocery shops.
In 2013, economic difficulties threatened the closure of his business but he was resilient.
In 2015, hit by a crisis that affected his business, he sold all his 18 houses in the Mbundane suburb to keep his business running and finished building his house in the Selbourne Park suburb in Bulawayo.
He has found several ways to expand as an entrepreneur and recently opened a restaurant.
He also engaged the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) in 2017 to turn “Enkwalini dam”, the “pool of death” in Entumbane suburb into a life-sustaining project.
“I saw this opportunity after reading a story from Chronicle headlined “Pool of death ‘claims’ Poly student” several years back and applied to the council to fence the dam and do business there,” said Mr Nkomazana.
He runs a poultry project at the pool and does fishing and gardening. The “dam” provides supplies like fish, chicken meat and vegetables for his restaurant.
Mr Nkomazana said he also started buying cattle and keeping them as “insurance” should mishaps happen in his business.
He said when he started the bakery, he aimed to retire at 35, but the economy made him surpass his target.
In future, Mr Nkomazana wants to focus on baking cookies as there is minimal labour in their production.
This will not keep him too busy and he will have time with his family.
He has a wife and four children. His first-born is a girl doing form three at Dominican Convent, his second born is a boy who is in Grade Seven at Petra, the third one is six years old and attending pre-school and his last born is three years old.
Mr Nkomazana aims to build his own baking factory and shops after an application to the Bulawayo City Council to buy more commercial stands.–@Sagepapie14
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