Some years back when I wanted to build my first home a good friend of mine Wilfred gave me good advice. He said when building your first home don’t go for fancy stuff, don’t go for big house plans which you may end up struggling to complete.

He said your first project should be simple and yet classy-your chief aim being to stop paying anyone rent! Once your starter home is complete then start strategizing for a bigger project where you will use experience gained from the starter home. You have to keep moving and therefore improve in terms of number of rooms, number of features-perhaps a bigger bathroom, more bedrooms, swimming pools,tennis courts etc.

He said look at the white community in Zim especially Harare, most of them started by living in areas such as Haig Park,Hillside,Waterfalls, Mabelreign, Sentosa, Greencroft. Most of these areas had starter homes for the white community and most of the homes were basic…a few bedrooms,bathroom,kitchen,dining and lounge etc. With time the white community moved to bigger places such as Mt Pleasant,Highlands,Glenlorne,Vainona and Borrowdale.

So you too can do it, start small and keep moving. A home in Kuwadzana, you sell it and buy a residential stand in Tynwald, you build and sell and move on to Glen Lorne or Chishawasha. The trick here is to be mobile-you have to keep moving. Do not look down upon an area like what some say when talking about high density areas, just grab a property improve, sell and keep moving.

Starter home versus Massive Projects

I urge you to visit some new developments in Harare- drive along Harare Drive where you can see incomplete housing projects. Some would have skipped the housing stages and instead of starter homes, you just move straight to Mt Pleasant, Glen Lorne or Borrowdale. The problem with being too ambitious is that sometimes you can build massive homes that you do not complete resulting in you selling the incomplete houses. Harare has a lot of such projects and I have copied below a couple of such projects. The problem with selling incomplete projects is that you end up selling at a discount!

So we have covered Kids Business, we also brought you information on Online Forex Trading-how to join our group. We covered Diaspora Investment matters as well. What remains outstanding is the interviews with 2 sisters on the forum-one based in Germany and another one in Kenya. We are hoping to finalise them and share their stories next weekend.

Important Changes

We are slowly building a team that will manage the group. Iam proud that some of the best brains from the ZBIN Community will be providing leadership to the group as trustees, registration of the group is at an advanced stage, Ms Tariro Kutadza will be leading the registration process. We will follow the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance and in the leadership position allocation and operations of the group. The good thing about our group is that we have been in existence for a long period of time; we have a strong and active membership and have representation in Zimbabwe and the Diaspora.

The following members will be part of the board:

1. Ms Martha Tholanah (Hre )-NGO field background
2. Mr Polite Ndlovu (Plumtree )-Business Management background
3. Ms Tariro Kutadza (Hre )-NGO field background
4. Mrs Rudo  Chaza Mataranyika (UK) -Medical field background
5. Mr C Chamakanda (US ) –Accounting background, CGMA
6. Mrs Laureen Munodaani Mushati (US )-Medical field background
7. Ms Hannah Tarindwa (Namibia ) –Business Management background
8. Mr Tavaziva Machigidi (UK )-Accounting background, CA
9. Ms Nyasha Gono (Hre ) –Accounting background, pending, CGMA membership
10. Ms Clara Mapfumo (Hre)-Engineering background
11. Mr Kiva Chiputu (Tete) –Transport and logistics background
12. Rodwell Mawoneke (Cape Town)-Entrepreneurship background

We believe that we have a strong team in place that is made up of locals and diasporans; it is also gender sensitive with 60% female board representation. We have a diverse team with different professional backgrounds. We have included the youth with Ms Nyasha Gono representing the young voice on the board. World Award winner in the HIV and Aids field, Ms Martha Tholanah will lead the board of trustees. Mr Polite Ndlovu from Plumtree will be our interim CEO. We will give you more updates once we have finalised our registration.

Spokesperson for the Group

Ms Tariro Kutadza is going to be our interim spokesperson for group and will be developing materials to market the group; she will manage our twitter account, Youtube media, newspaper articles and our website. Do expect Munemo to slowly handover to Ms Kutadza in the coming few weeks.

Mozambique Trip

A lot of members have been inquiring about the next Mozambique trip and the answer is that its still on. After the Tete trip, the next one is to Beira or Chimoio-we are not looking for many members to join since this is our first tour to this place. We will update you in the coming weeks.

Diaspora Reception

Thank you to everyone who registered and special mention goes to Loveness from USA who donated funds for hosting this event. Its on this week in Queensdale, Harare and we are looking forward to a fruitful event.

ZBIN Wishes you