Tawengwa Dynasty
By Tapfuma Machakaire
Tawengwa is a household name not only in the capital city Harare but in many parts of Zimbabwe as well. The name of the highly influential dynasty features prominently in both business and political circles.
For five decades, the family has had business interests in the property, hospitality agriculture, and transport and retail sectors.
Mushandirapamwe Hotel, a business enterprise located at the busy Machipisa Shopping Centre in Highfields suburb of Harare became the headquarters of the Tawengwa operations. But who is behind the establishment of the Tawengwa dynasty?
George Tawengwa Chirume, the son of Chirume and Maria was born on 6 March, 1915 in Mwanza village in Goromonzi. It is said when he was about 12 years old, he ran away from home after a fight with his father and ended up at Grinham Farm in Marandellas, now Marondera. There, he worked as a shepherd for Robert Grinham, the founder of Ruzawi Primary School and Springvale House.
Folklore has it that the clash with his father was over a breach of traditional feeding protocol by picking a piece of meat ahead of his father. Such behaviour was a taboo, which those days could attract a hefty punishment.
Another story is told that as a child, George became critically ill. His father is said to have called a prophet to help heal his son. It is said the prophet diagnosed the sickness as a sign that the boy had been chosen by the gods for a mission. He was to reignite a lost cause and that he would become a wealthy and prominent person.
Tawengwa’s father and the rest of the village are said to have dismissed the prophecy as a fallacy. George is said to have changed his surname from Chirume to the middle name Tawengwa most likely due to his alleged strained relationship with his father. George was, however, known to be a hard working young man who at the age of about 15 was hired at the Meikles Hotel as a dishwasher before being promoted to waiter. He used the money he earned in tips to start a small business of refining grain mealie-meal.
He later established a transport business with a fleet of buses that grew to over 150 under the name Mushandirapamwe Bus Service. At the same time, Tawengwa had been setting up retail businesses in Harare and Marondera.The Mushandirapamwe retail outlets are still found in places like Mbare, Epworth, Marondera and Hwedza.
In 1960, George Tawengwa became the first black person in Southern Rhodesia to purchase a commercial farm, 1,872 hectares in size, then called Rhodesdale Farm (renamed Zimdale Farm in 1980). In 1977 George and wife Mabel made headlines in the Rhodesia Herald when they made a cash transaction to purchase five farms in the Wedza area. Previously, the couple had bought two other commercial farms in the Chemagora area of Gokwe district in the Midlands Province. Tawengwa is listed as the first black millionaire in Rhodesia.
In 1972 Tawengwa built the Mushandira Pamwe Hotel in Harare which todate is still referred to as (kwaMushandz). It is reported that Tawengwa worked with insurance guru Paul Tangi Mhova Mkondo on the project. The hotel was to become famous for harbouring nationalist leaders during the second chimurenga war between 1966 and 1980.
Ex-broadcaster and politician Webster Shamu would advertise Mushandirapamwe Hotel on the RBC African Service (now Radio Zimbabwe) every Friday evening in the early 1970s before he left to join the liberation war.
KwaMushanz became a famous entertainment spot in Salisbury which hosted leading musicians that include legendary musicians like Elisha Josamu and New Tutenkamen, Pied Pipers, James Chimombe and Oliver Mtukudzi.
Popular South African Smanje Manje and Mbaqanga groups like Izintombi ZesiManje Manje, Soul Brothers- with stylish organist Solly Rametsi, saxophonists Hosea Mashupye and Reggie Msomi and The Hurricanes were accommodated at Mushandirapamwe Hotel during their regular regional tours.
Leading politicians who utilised Mushandirapamwe hotel include former President Robert Gabriel Mugabe who held secret meetings after his ten-year detention. His plans to cross into Mozambique with former Secretary General Edgar Tekere to lead ZANU after Chairman Herbert Chitepo’s assassination in Lusaka Zambia were hatched at Mushandz.
Upon his return from Mozambiue during the ceasfire former Zimbabwe Defence forces commander General Solomon Tapfumaneyi Mujuru, aka Rex Nhongo was based at the hotel when he coordinated Mugabe’s homecoming star rally at nearby Zimbabwe Grounds. To this day, Mushandirapamwe hotel is celebrated as a historic monument in which the revolution was brewed and sustained.
Tawengwa was a polygamist. He had seven spouses who bore twenty children. His sons became entrepreneurs and farmers, with Charles and Solomon both serving as mayors of Harare.
Solomon Tawengwa was MP for Highfields between 1987 and 1990, a seat that became vacant when Prime Minister Robert Mugabe was elevated to the Executive Presidency. He also served twice as mayor of Harare, and became Harare’s first Executive Mayor. In the ruling ZANU PF party, Solomon was a member of the politburo where he held the position of Deputy Secretary for Economic Affairs. He also served as chairperson of key listed companies and parastatals, among them RioZim, Lafarge Cement and ZESA Holdings.
In November 2005, his young brother, Charles Tawengwa was appointed Zanu PF Senator for Highfields, Glen Norah, and Glen View.
Charles was in 2010 also appointed to the ZANU PF politburo. In September 2013, he was elected as senator for Harare Metropolitan. He served as Acting Chairman for ZANU – PF’s Harare Province.
Their father, George Tawengwa, died at the age of 67 on 13 April 1982 at Parerenyatwa Hospital in Harare. He was buried at Zimdale Farm, a property he purchased in 1960.
