Indigenising economy: Retracing the footprints

The Interview Kudzai Sadomba
KS: Can you start by telling us where you were born and the schools you attended?
BM: I was born on March 31, 1927 in Chishawasha. I went to Chishawasha Mission were I completed my Standard 6 in 1946. I then travelled to Harare in search of employment.

KS: What was life like when you came to the then Salisbury?
BM: Life was very tough for a black person because all businesses were white-owned. No black person was allowed to own a business.

KS: So how did you start?
BM: I started as a teacher. All those who had done Standard Six were made teachers and I opened Acturus Mine School in 1947-48. In 1949 I joined the Rhodesian Selection Trust which was into housing projects. The company bought the Vainona Estates which had 300 acres.
I was a foreman at the estates working on developing them into the stands. I was responsible for the construction of the roads and developing the stands and the junior and senior schools before I moved in 1956 when the Federation ended.

That is when I moved to Harare and bought my taxi. It was also the same year when blacks were allowed to buy their own houses in New Highfield in the Engineering Section. I started with one taxi and bought another one six months later. Many things were happening in Highfield and many people had no accommodation. We met and discussed issues to do with politics with other boys. It all started in Highfield with people like Chikerema, Nyandoro and Paul Mushonga who started this thing.
I was given the duty of using my taxi to ferry them since they had no money. The politics people talk about these days started in Highfield.

KS: Taking you back a little, how hard was it for you to buy your own taxi?
BM: It was very difficult because blacks did not have the opportunity to develop. After working for Vainona Estates I only had 300 Pounds which I used to buy the taxi that I was driving in Mbare.

I bought the second one the time we opened the Machipisa Taxi rank. In 1962, I had six taxis but I sold them and bought two buses.
It was however not easy. During that period there were taxis that were classified. Class 1 was for whites and the Class 2 for blacks. Blacks stayed in Mbare and Highfield and nowhere else.

KS: As a businessman you played a key role in politics, how did it all start?
BM: The days of the liberation struggle were very difficult as you have heard that the journey to independence started in Highfield between the two parties, Zapu and Zanu.
When the boys went to war some of us had businesses with the likes of Mwayera and Makomva, who had stores. We gave freedom fighters money for food.

Some of us had buses that travelled across the country and I was the president of the association of bus owners that traversed the country. We would receive the freedom fighters at the bus terminuses and we would give them the money for food. They would give the food to women in rural areas who would prepare it.

The freedom fighters coming from Mozambique would bring their guns and bullets, others from Zambia would do the same. They would return to Zimbabwe for food which was prepared by locals.

I was arrested and stayed at Southerton Police Station for a crime I did not know about. It all started when I sent my driver from the bus company with goods for the freedom fighters including clothes, shoes and rain coats for the rainy season and he bought them from a white man’s shop.

The white man reported to the command centre that someone was buying goods for terrorists and the driver was followed by the police, but he was not aware of it. He got to Mutare Road, Ruwa, Bromley and when he was in Marondera he went to a freedom fighters’ base and delivered the goods.
The police recorded the car’s number plates and discovered that I owned it, leading to my arrest.

They asked about the car and I told them that it was mine. They said I was a terrorist because I supplied goods to them but I challenged them to tell me the charge. They said they followed the car from the time the driver bought the goods and discovered a base for terrorists. They accused me of looking after the terrorists.

They said they had arrested six boys and four girls in Macheke as they were on their way to Mozambique and when they were asked how they had travelled they indicated that I had driven them to Macheke.

They accused me of taking the boys and girls for training so that they bring arms into the country to kill government soldiers. They said I was fighting the government and I was supposed to be shot.
I was assaulted and released. That experience should not happen again.

KS: After the beating did you continue?
BM: I did not stop. When the leaders came we would hold meetings in churches such as Methodist at Mupedzanhamo. We would give the freedom fighters money at the church.
All those who had shops or buses agreed to support the struggle for independence because the people’s freedom meant independence for our businesses. We supported the war with common objectives.

President Mugabe knows how I contributed to the revolution and he sometimes talks of me. Gushungo and Tekere would come first to my garage in the 1970s with Rufaro’s small car around 5-6 pm and we would plan these issues.
The President does not forget up to now and he knows how we contributed to the struggle.

It was difficult and you could not tell anyone because some of them were Selous Scouts.
There are people such as Uzungu, who owned buses and were arrested for ferrying guerillas and also assaulted at the detention camps. He suffered broken ribs and died. We were hopeful that all would be well after independence and we are enjoying the fruits of that struggle.

KS: So all is well now?
BM: It is well because Zimbabwe is free. The youths should know that people died for our independence. Zimbabwe was freed through the blood of others .Those who blindly follow these small political parties do so because they did not experience the war and it should not happen again.
The youths should support the Government in power because it brought the country so we move forward and regain the businesses we had lost.

KS: Do you have anything else to add to what we have discussed.
BM: The youths should follow the ideologies that brought the country’s independence and remain resolute. You should never be swayed by forces trying to use you.

KS: What do you remember most from the liberation struggle?
BM: We were in a tight spot during the war. The white man’s Government did not care for the blacks, especially those they knew supported the liberation struggle by giving the freedom fighters food and clothes. They wanted to kill all indigenous businesspeople.

KS: As a father and grandfather, tell us how you got married and how you looked after your family?
BM: I married and wedded in the Roman Catholic Church. I stayed well with my family. I worked hard for my family. When I was still in the taxi business I always reminded myself that I had to have my own farm. So in 1959 I bought a farm in Muda in an area known as African Purchase Area.
I bought another farm in 1979 in Beatrice after realising that independence was near and I am still here.
I moved to this farm in 1986 and I stay there with my family. I always wanted to have my own land and I support Government’s land reform programme because I was always in it from the beginning.

I think you all know that I was elected IBDC president, a position I still hold. We began these programmes to indigenise the economy.
All that is happening today, we started it and we support it because it is exactly what we looked forward to. We always asked why our children suffered during the war. We need to control our economy. We suffered as our resources were benefiting other countries such as Germany, America, Russia, China, India but these riches belong to the people.
God created this world with the resources belonging to the indigenous people and he saw it fit that Africa should have all the resources. It is wrong and stupid to sell out on the country to the whites.

The whites have their own resources and we have our own. There are no black people owning farms in Britain or America because they will never be allowed. We were lost until we took our land, which is our inheritance, back so that the youths can work for the development of our country and not be lured by people using money. There are people who are enticed with sweets and then sell out.

KS: What led to the formation of the IBDC?
BM: We formed it after independence. We sat down with people like Boka, Mapondera, Masiiwa and Mai Mutasa to figure out what our independence meant.
We wanted to make it clear that when whites ruled us nothing changed as they still controlled the mines, farms and industries and nothing belonged to us.

That is how we started these things and we approached President Mugabe. The President asked his colleagues, including Dr Bernard Chidzero from the finance ministry, after we agreed that we needed to indigenise the economy. We were asked how we could do it so we told them that there was need to pass laws of indigenisation and take the farms for re-distribution to its rightful owners.
We told them that after this then the country would be totally independent. The President heard us and Cabinet decided that is why today we have a minister responsible for indigenisation. He is our minister and we are proud because we have a Government that listens to the people.
We should remain united while the youths remain resolute. Our leaders were in Ethiopia discussing the International Criminal Court (ICC).

The ICC is being used against blacks only. George Bush and Tony Blair should be taken to the ICC because people are still dying in Iraq everyday following what they did. The people in Iraq are suffering but Blair and Bush are moving freely. The ICC should try Bush and Blair first not Kenyatta. They killed Muammar Gaddafi in a gruesome manner. They also hate our President. And after getting a sweet from a white man and you agree with him. Do not be fooled about democracy because it is here in Africa not America. Even Bush did not win an election. Everyone knows that he lost the election but the whites planned everything.