New supermarket opens in Mutare

GIANT hardware outlet, BAFS Hardware, is extending its tentacles into the groceries business with an aim of providing the Mutare market with affordable consumer goods.
Zeps Superette, a subsidiary of BAFS Hardware, is opening its doors to Mutare residents on Monday with a mission to provide the market with goods at competitive and fair prices.
Zepplin Mahati, managing director of BAFS Hardware, said they were diversifying into the groceries business as part of the Group’s mission to provide the Mutare community with a wide range of consumer products at low cost.
“We are diversifying into the groceries business so that we can give the Mutare community a wide range of products other than hardware,” Mahati said. “We want people to have groceries at fair and competitive prices.”
The new outlet, situated along Tembwe Street a stone throw away from Mudzviti Bus terminus, is stocked with an assortment of groceries which will be disposed to the market at low prices.
The outlet is spacious and meets international standards.
“We are coming into the market with good products which are friendly priced,” Mahati said.
He said Zeps Superette was committed to ensuring that the Mutare community accesses groceries at almost cost price.
The new outlet employs 20 people who are highly trained and professional. The new entrant into the groceries’ field will be managed by Manoji Raja, who has vast experience in the industry.
Mahati said Zeps Superette will soon expand its brand to other areas surrounding Manicaland Province.
“I have worked all my life for the people of Mutare and it is my wish to ensure everybody can afford to access consumer goods at affordable prices,” Mahati said.
The soft spoken and humble businessman was born and bred in Mutare. Born in 1971 in Mutare, Mahati grew up in the poor township of Sakubva. He is the first born of Zebediah and Gloriah Mahati.
Like any other child who grew up in Sakubva, Mahati was exposed to the rough and tumble of township life at an early age.
Mahati did his primary education at Mutanda Primary School in Sakubva before enrolling at Mutare Boys High School for his high school education.
In 1990 he joined BAFS Hardware as a counter salesman. Simultaneously, Mahati was enrolled part-time at Mutare Poly technical College where he successfully obtained a national diploma in business studies. He is currently enrolled with UNISA.
Through hard work and determination, Mahati rose through the ranks at BAFS Hardware becoming a salesman in 1997 and later general manager the following year.
Through the support of a financial institution, Mahati started to buy shares in BAFS Hardware, then wholly owned by Arun Mooljee, an accomplished businessman. Mooljee owns a leading hardware outlet in Harare, FABS.
In 2007 Mahati took over BAFS Hardware after acquiring a controlling stake in the giant hardware concern.
BAFS Hardware employs a total of 35 people. The hardware giant leads the pack in the industry.
It distributes an array of building materials ranging from asbestos, door frames, window frames, timber, treated poles, imported solid meranti doors, an assortment of paints, tiles and plumbing materials.
BAFS Hardware also distributes farming implements and chemicals, protective clothing, electric motors, wielding machines and car batteries.
“Today, Mahati has kept BAFS as a leading supplier for building materials in Manicaland,” says Mooljee, Mahati’s long-time business mentor.
The captain of Mutare’s industry and commerce says he was inspired by his grandfather who ran a general dealer shop, Madakadze Store at 22-Miles, south of Mutare.
From the humble beginnings in Sakubva’s Old Chisamba section, Mahati always dreamt that one day he would emulate his grand father and become a successful businessman with his roots and beliefs firmly to do the best for the community in Mutare, Manicaland and the country.
His advice to the youth is: “If you work hard in whatever you are doing you can achieve and realize your goals.”
Over the past 20 years Mahati has ploughed back to the community through assisting and developing schools in Manicaland and helping needy children with school fees.
He is also credited with assisting several schools build houses for teachers and staff in the province. Mahati, as a Christian, has helped in the development of churches.
“We are all part of one community and its only through supporting one another can our community grow,” Mahati said. “I thank Mutare for giving me that opportunity and support of my project.”

Current political instability could derail GNU

MUTARE – The current disturbances at the farms and the continued detention of political prisoners threatens the success of the inclusive government in Zimbabwe, church organizations have warned.
The Zimbabwe Catholic Bishops Conference (ZCBC), Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe (EFZ) and the Zimbabwe Council of Churches (ZCC) warned the government of national unity, formed by President Mugabe’s Zanu PF and the two MDC political parties led by Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and Arthur Mutambara, was under threat.
The organizations, under the banner Churches in Manicaland, said they were concerned by the current happenings which they deem as a threat to the success of the inclusive government.
They said threats to teachers returning to schools, the continued land invasions, arrest and detention of political prisoners was harming the spirit of the Global Political Agreement of 15 September 2009.
The church organizations are also concerned at the interference by law enforcement agents with community peace initiatives aimed at remedying ills committed during the run –up to the June 27 bloody presidential run-off.
They said they were equally worried about the exorbitant pricing of goods and services, pegged in US Dollars, SA Rands and Botswana Pula.
They said prices of goods and services in Zimbabwe were far much higher than those charged within the region.
They said service charges by both our local authorities and parastatals are unreasonable. They gave an example of charges for rates, water by ZINWA, telephone bills and television and radio licenses by ZBH which they said are out of this world. Water charges can go p to US100 per household while television and radio licenses are pegged at US50.
The majority of civil servants in Zimbabwe earn US100 a month.

Soldier forces rival to drink raw sewage

IN a bizarre case, a Zimbabwean soldier forced a 29-year old man to drink raw sewage from a burst pipe as punishment for being intimate with his 25-year old wife.
The incident happened in Dangamvura, a poor township in Mutare, Zimbabwe’s third largest city which is 265 km east of Harare, the capital.
Simon Chauke, a solider with the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA), caught Laison Zvemisha red – handed being intimate with his wife at his matrimonial house in Dangamvura high density suburb after he had set up a trap.
Chauke, based at 4: 1 Infantry Battalion in Masvingo, a town about 300km south of Harare, was tipped off by neghbours that his wife Chiedza Chombo was having an adulterous affair with Zvemisha. The soldier was told his wife and Zvemisha would on several occasions lock each other at his house while he was away on duty.
He then lied to his wife that he was going on tour of duty but instead went to a friend’s place in the neighborhood where he waited until he got information that his rival suitor had entered his house.
According to a report carried by a local weekly here, The Manica Post, the soldier, in the company of a fellow member of the ZNA ambushed the house and found the two lovebirds between the sheets.
The soldiers then started beating up Zvemisha, reported the newspaper. After beating him severely the soldiers then dragged the terrified man to a nearby burst sewage pipe and forced him to drink raw sewage.
They said it was punishment for being intimate with Chauke’s wife.
The hapless man was saved by the intervention of members of the public who felt he had had enough and that the punishment was also awkward.
The police did not arrest the soldiers. The fate of Zvemisha is not known as neighbours say he has deserted his residence in Dangamvura. Zimbabwe is currently battling a cholera outbreak that has claimed several thousands lives.
According to the report Zvemisha was renowned in the neighborhood for his “insatiable thirst” for married woman.
The Manica Post is a government controlled provincial weekly.