Honesty key to success: Ncube

Mernat Mafirakurewa Business Editor
“IN this industry, you can only succeed if you are honest.”
These were the words of one of Bulawayo’s leading land developers, Hawkflight Enterprises proprietor Mngane Ncube, in a wide-ranging interview early this week.

The journey has been a long one for Ncube who at one time had to drop out of school way back in 1992 and resort to eking out a living through transporting various goods within Bulawayo’s Central Business District using a pushcart.

He recalls that sometimes he would leave his pushcart popularly known as scania at the door of Foundation College where he had enrolled to supplement his studies.

“Life was tough then. I had to do everything for myself including raising money for school fees, but such is life. It however, taught me that all things are possible in life.”

From a school dropout Ncube picked himself up to further his education and he was to become a quantity surveyor by profession and a builder by default.

Ncube got into construction sometime in 1999 while he was in Marondera but things did not work out.

It was after his failure to make inroads that he decided to come back to Bulawayo to try his hand at other sectors. But as fate would have it, he found himself back in the construction industry.

“The first house that I developed is in Cowdray Park and it was in 2000. I bought one stand and developed it, then sold it at a profit. I then kept on doing the same thing, buying one stand at a time and re-selling,” narrated Ncube.

“With time I was able to build a portfolio from which I had the base to formally register a company and as they say the rest is history.”
From 2000 Ncube said he started getting jobs as a subcontractor to developers that would have been allocated land by council.

In 2001 the company had a breakthrough and managed to fully service and develop 300 stands in Cowdray Park. From then on Hawkflight started getting land directly from the local authority.

At its inception the company’s activities were confined to land development and construction of residential and commercial buildings.
It has, however, since evolved into other fields of civil engineering and associated infrastructural projects.

“We have built more than 2,000 houses in Cowdray Park. From there we got the Pelandaba West project and since then it’s been project after project. We are a company that implements high standards of workmanship,” he said.

Ncube attributed his success to one thing, honesty.

“The risk that is in this business is to convert people’s money to your own use. People want trust. If you are not honest you are bound to abuse people’s funds,” said Ncube. “Potential home seekers actually prefer that you rather delay in delivering but ensure that they receive their houses. We have been honest from the beginning, we would rather be slow but deliver. We have handled projects for people that were in the Diaspora and they all got their homes.”

The liquidity crisis currently gripping the economy has however not spared the construction industry but this has not stopped Ncube from spreading his tentacles to other towns such as Plumtree, Gwanda and will soon be entering the Hwange market.

“The sector has been affected by the cash crunch. However, the good thing is that everyone wants to have a house and is willing to pay. As for us our payment terms are flexible to ensure that potential home seekers are able to pay,” he said.

Hawkflight has a housing scheme through which it builds houses and hands them to prospective home seekers upon completion. The beneficiaries are required to pay between $120 and $130 over a period of 10 to 12 years.

Through the scheme the company successfully completed 185 houses at Pelandaba West suburb and is working on 3,500 houses at Emthunzini Township, which is located between Pumula South and Nkulumane suburbs.

Apart from this housing scheme, Hawkflight Construction also sells stands to individuals.

Despite his passion for the construction industry, Ncube also has interest in farming, mining, transport and retail.
This, he said, is to ensure that the businesses complement each other.

With over 400 employees, Hawkflight is no doubt one of the largest employers in the city at a time when other entities are scaling down their operations.

“It is the intention of the company to employ a locally based, skilled and experienced workforce and to implement a training and development programme in liaison with educational and training institutions,” Ncube said.

“In five years time we hope to have done more projects in this city. There is no place like home and the support we have received over the years has been tremendous.”

As part of its expansion programme, Hawkflight last year invested about $2 million in the acquisition of a state-of-the-art concrete roof tile and a clay brick manufacturing machine both from China as well as a VB4X block-making machine for the manufacture of concrete bricks, blocks and paving.

The clay brick plant was installed by Chinese engineers who arrived in the country last month.

The multiple-award winning businessman said with hard work there were no limits to what an individual could achieve.