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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
FROM a mechanic to one of Victoria Falls’ most renowned businesspersons.
This aptly describes businessman and philanthropist Mr Ozias Marange (60) whose name is synonymous to the growth of the Zimbabwe’s newest and tourism city.
Infrastructure development that took place in the resort city in 2019, cannot be complete without mentioning Mr Marange’s name as his hardware is central to supplying building materials.
Mr Marange left his job at the Central Mechanical Engineering Department (CMED) Victoria Falls depot after serving for more than a decade to start Mosi Driving School and Mosi Taxis in 1998.
He later handed over Mosi Driving to his younger brother as he concentrated on Makomwe Transport and Hardware (MTH) which he runs with his wife Lydia, who is the company’s finance director.
MTH has 30 haulage trucks, hardware shops in Victoria Falls and Hwange and two fuel service stations in Victoria Falls.
One of the service stations is the magnificent Glow, a US$1,5 million investment opened last year in partnership with Glow Petroleum.
About 100 people are employed by MTH, 63 of them permanently while the remainder are casuals who are engaged when it gets busy.
Mr Marange also has interests in education and is the owner of Amazing Kids Primary School which started as a pre-school before upgrading to a primary school five years ago and now has Grades 1 to 4.
“I started very small and gradually grew. Almost half of taxi owners in Victoria Falls came through Mosi Taxis which is now defunct though, and a majority of those who obtained drivers licences got them through Mosi driving school.
“I am a professional mechanic and used to work for CMED but left to start my own things and also to open space for young blood. When I started the trucking business, people used to ask me to bring them cement as there was significant construction here and they would pay at the end of the month.
So I realised that I was basically selling to them and that is how I opened the hardware shop in 2000,” said Mr Marange.
He said Victoria Falls by then was a very small town but showing growth potential.
MTH’S third branch was in Bulawayo but closed a few years ago.
Mr Marange said he plans to build a shopping mall at the state-of-the-art Glow garage.
“The garage is doing well and I want to construct a complex which will have supermarkets, office space, shops and banks,” he said.
Mr Marange is a humanitarian who has done many projects for the community.
He is a former national deputy president of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) and former president of Rotary International Victoria Falls chapter.
As a member of the local Business Against Crime Forum of Zimbabwe, Mr Marange built and donated three buildings used by police as satellite police posts in Chinotimba, Mkhosana and at Victoria Falls border.
He has helped build classroom blocks for some schools around Victoria Falls rural communities where he has also started water projects. Mr Marange said he is building a classroom block at a school in his province of origin, Manicaland.
A number of disadvantaged children from Victoria Falls have benefited from education scholarships offered by Mr Marange.
Some entrepreneurs try their luck in politics once they become successful businesspersons.
Mr Marange however, said his wish is to remain outside politics but supporting Government programmes.
“I have no political ambitions because as a businessman I want to remain neutral and work with everyone. I always want to see people growing which is why I am actively involved in social responsibility,” he said.
Mr Marange has been recognised for his outstanding work and has won a number of awards.
He said the growth trajectory being experienced in Victoria Falls especially in the tourism industry was a good environment for business.
Mr Marange said the city needs to invest in skills development to reverse brain drain.
“The growth of the city is also pushing us and we are growing with it. Yes, there is a bit of some pressure on the competition side but that’s how business grows.
“What we need as a city are skilled workers. This is a real challenge in Victoria Falls and an area where we need to push together because we are losing skilled workers through brain drain. So we sometimes take apprentices just to train people because the city needs properly qualified personnel to match its growth,” said Mr Marange.
He appealed to Government to come up with policies that support indigenous businesspersons as they compete with foreign investors who enjoy rebates from the State.
“We are still here because we love our Government and our country. As a company we are involved in building of Victoria Falls and a majority of facilities here got building material from us. We could be far by now in terms of size of business but unfortunately the economy has let us down although we continue to soldier on.
“We used to carry exports but stopped because of the 40 percent surrender rates paid to Government but you find that even when operating locally, 20 percent is still too high considering the state of the economy. So we appeal to Government to consider reducing the 20 percent liquidation fees charged per trip so that we survive.
We support Government in many ways including taxes and VAT and our profits are already small since expenses including salaries are in United States dollars,” said Mr Marange.
His three children are Rudo, a veterinary doctor based in South Africa, Meakin, a chemical engineer based in USA and Trust who is a civil engineer who runs a construction company that constructed the Glow garage. — @ncubeleon
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