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Dr Phillip Chiyangwa
Fifa president Mr Gianni Infantino’s overnight stay in Zimbabwe must have baffled many. But hey, a whole world out there craves visiting Zimbabwe and many people are dying to meet President Mugabe. The team of football association presidents that I brought to Zimbabwe for my birthday bash wanted to meet and greet President Mugabe.
Fortunately for me, I have been in Zanu-PF and know the politics there.
Sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down, but there is a grandmaster there: President Mugabe.
If you really study the man – how he conducts his business and has stayed on top his game for a long time – you will realise that he is a special breed.
He has had to manage power-hungry people: some with psychotic states of mind and others who form their own political parties which disintegrate rapidly.
At 93, here is a man who has managed to retain mastery over everything around him.
I draw some vital lessons from President Mugabe who is also my brother – I know many have doubted this.
Yes, I am the President’s brother, but I have never taken advantage of that.
There are many of us Gushungos (President Mugabe’s totem) and there are those who find it necessary to go to the President and ask for assistance where necessary.
I also do so when necessary, especially on issues that will not leave the family exposed to scandals.
So, I am very mindful of that.
I was born in Chegutu. My mother is from Zowa while my father is from Zvimba.
Tisu ana Gushungo vacho. . .Tsivo, that’s my totem.
I don’t hide it because it’s a fact.
That element of surprise, the ability to see 20 years from now and perseverance, are some of the qualities I admire and have copied from President Mugabe.
Just like the President, I may appear as if I am beaten or I am at my weakest, but when I come back, I will walk through you no matter how big you are.
President Mugabe has surprised many, especially his detractors.
Sometimes when they think he is going down, he actually emerges stronger.
At 93, he still exudes astuteness.
He is a hero when it comes to politics and people management.
The President has ticked all the boxes.
He is a hero who has championed education for all, freedom and economic empowerment.
I am inspired a lot by President Mugabe and I wish those who carry his messages to the masses do so without distortion.
The President has made himself clear about empowerment.
He wants Zimbabweans to enjoy their God-given resources, but the empowerment programme seems to have been twisted.
The supposed implementers now want to empower themselves at the expense of the masses, and that runs contrary to the President’s vision.
What we want are doers, actors, agents of prosperity.
We want people who put President Mugabe’s brilliant ideas into action without distortion.
But sometimes we have corrupt people in leadership positions, those who will demand something in exchange for services provided yet they are employed to provide those services.
They chose to be MPs, they chose to be ministers, so, they should work for the nation because if they do not want, then they should become businessmen like us.
In the process, these people are becoming a blockade between President Mugabe and the masses whom he seeks to empower.
Black empowerment is a subject that touches the nerves.
It is a programme I had so much hope and faith in and thought would transform poverty into wealth.
As someone who grew up in a family of 14 and survived on money raised from my mother’s vegetable stall in Chegutu, I developed entrepreneurial skills at an early age.
I was raised in an environment where we woke up at 6am tichinohodha madomasi or to go hunting for meat in Chegutu’s farms.
At 12-years-old, I was already popular with officers at Chegutu Police Camp because I was a supplier of fresh mealie cobs which I brought from Chakari on a bicycle.
It was all hustling, hustling for a living, and our family managed to survive from vending.
That’s how I evolved into a goal-oriented hard worker.
Most people do not know that I spent two years sleeping on the floor in Lobengula when I got my first job in Bulawayo in 1978.
I left Chegutu with only two blankets – aya ainzi muto wenyemba – and two pots that my mother had given me.
Mine was practical experience. I learnt to work very hard from childhood and I also learnt to give.
My first business opportunity came through selling scrap tyres and tubes at Dunlop.
I became popular at Bulawayo’s Renkini as a major supplier.
More opportunities opened up at Willowvale Motor Industries where I bought disused kombi bodies for resale after I had quit my job at Dunlop.
That was around 1983 and there were so many whites leaving the country and selling their property, especially cars.
So, I started buying and selling those cars until more and more opportunities in land acquisition and manufacturing came my way.
People do not see things from a distance.
You don’t have to think of the next year or two years; think of the next 20 years, just like what President Mugabe does.
Right now, there is discourse around an “acceptable” successor to President Mugabe. What it means is that those around him have to change their behaviour.
They must try and change themselves. This is so because people aren’t showing leadership qualities, they are showing selfishness, exuding selfishness more than leadership qualities.
Dr Phillip Chiyangwa is the Zimbabwe Football Association president and a prominent businessman. He was speaking to The Sunday Mail’s Langton Nyakwenda and Tinashe Farawo in Harare last Sunday
Online Reporter