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Blessings Chidakwa Herald Reporter
A group of German missionaries based in South Africa, where it owns a major beverage firm as part of its self-help philosophy, arrived in Zimbabwe yesterday to assess business opportunities, while Dubai-based billionaire Mr Shaji ul Mulk arrived in the afternoon.
The team from Kwasizabantu Mission, led by Mr Dietmar Joosten, touched down at Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport around lunchtime and said it was responding to President Mnangagwa’s call for investors.
Mr Joosten said their mission started in 1970 and two years later a young Zulu lady had a dream and God said there was a treasure under the mission.
“So in 1992 we found water, the best quality in South Africa and then after that we started to bottle it. We call it aQuellé, a brand well known in South Africa that also gives work to many different people. At the moment we have put up a new plant because we cannot keep up with the demand,” he said.
Mr Joosten said the company produces energy drinks and carbonated ones including flavours of naartjie, litchi and lemon, plus sparkling water.
“We produce between 40 000 to 50 000 an hour or even surpassing that. A lot of what we get we plough back into the community to schools, teachers training colleges, skills development colleges and that is the idea,” he said.
He added that the whole idea behind it is to help people.
“You cannot only give people God’s word which is the most important thing, but even Christ when he was on earth always had something for the people’s food wherever he was,” he said.
“From the beginning this is what the mission did. We have many different projects one would be gardening where we plant vegetables to support ourselves. We have got cattle, dairy for the milk. Those are things we are spreading out into the community.”
Mr Joosten said they have many small gardens across KwaZulu Natal, Mpumalanga and the Free State across the country where they try and encourage people to do things instead of waiting for somebody else to do it for you.
“With God’s help it can be done. We have helped people supply them with seedlings, putting up green houses, and little spaces to plant their own seedlings.
“It is spreading across the country. Tens of thousands of people have been helped. If you help one family member there are others that are helped through that same person,” he said.
The mission, he said, has a dairy farm and a place on the mission where they make their own products.
“We sell a lot of maas. We have been taught whatever we can do ourselves you must do it,” he said.
Mr Joosten said they have agricultural products where they plant green peppers in special modern type green houses where they supply the major chain stores in South Africa.
“That has also brought a lot of work at the moment. We are employing up to 400 people. We also teach them the skills at the same time. We are starting an agricultural college, a skills development centre where we don’t only show them and teach them, but give them the means of doing it themselves. We want the people to be empowered. We want people to do it themselves,” he said.
Mr Mulk was following up his last visit to Zimbabwe. During his last visit the business tycoon says he has been impressed by opportunities in Zimbabwe and has committed to invest over US$1 billion across several sectors.
He is spearheading the construction of a US$500 million Zimbabwe cyber city project, which will see the establishment of a state-of-the-art complex in Mt Hampden, on the north-west edge of Harare.
The cyber city project is the first investment to be made by a consortium of businesses from the Middle East under the Zimbabwe Global Investments Company.
It will be spread over 23ha and is expected to have a shopping mall, luxury villas and apartments, cyber technology offices and other social facilities.
The billionaire chairs a diverse club of wealthy businesspersons with members from the United States of America, Europe, India among other countries and was here to scout for opportunities.
Zimbabwe, under the Second Republic led by President Mnangagwa is on the cusp of industrialisation and development which could see the influx of international capital.
Online Reporter