Dr Matifadza Nyazema – The Woman who does not take no for an answer

Matifadza Nyazema

By Tapfuma Machakaire 17/10/2022

An upbringing by hospitable Catholic parents who looked after scores of relatives at their Mbare home produced a renowned female entrepreneur, who now runs a luxury boutique hotel in Victoria Falls.

Matifadza Nyazema says growing up she witnessed her father’s hospitality as he welcomed every relative to their Harare home. Such hospitality inspired Nyazema to venture into the tourism industry where she is now welcoming tourists from across the globe.

“An interesting statistic is that I have 56 first cousins. I know I counted and actually wrote a story about it. All of those cousins, all of their parents at one time or another came to live in our house because we were the Harare city people. What I remember most is that everyone was welcome, and I am just talking of immediate family.”  Nyazema told Alpha Media Holdings chairman Trevor Ncube in an interview.

Mbano Manor Hotel is situated 200metres from Victoria Falls National Park in a town where humans, wildlife and nature interact.From the comfort of the luxurious rooms of the hotel it is the norm to hear lions roaring in the distance.

Mbano Manor is the ultimate destination for nature lovers where the bushveld wraps itself around the hotel buildings. “With the construction, we only took down two trees,” says Nyazema. The idea was to build a small, exclusive lodge that would match anything Kruger or the Serengeti had to offer.

Nyazema conceptualised and developed the luxury boutique hotel that comprises 19 suites, becoming the first black female Zimbabwean to achieve such a feat.

She says the idea of investing in Victoria Falls was born out of a school trip that she took to the resort town when she was a kid.

“When I was seven or eight years old my father took us to Victoria Falls. He took his school. So, we went by train. I was very young, but I remember it very well. It was me and my older sister. That was a lasting memory for us.”

Matifadza Rukanzakanza was born on her grandfather’s farm in Msengezi Mashonaland West Province. Her parents then lived in a nearby small town, Kadoma in Rimuka high density suburb. Her father was a teacher and the mother a nurse. The couple later moved to Harare where Matifadza enrolled at Chipembere School in Highfield before the family moved to Mbare where her father had been elevated to the position of headmaster at Gwinyai Primary School. Easy access to the library at her father’s workplace enabled Matifadza to develop a culture of reading. She did her secondary education at St Dominic’s Chishawasha and later St Ignatius College.

Mati as she is affectionately known studied journalism in Nairobi Kenya through a Danida scholarship and worked briefly as a sub editor with the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation in the early eighties.

She later did a Bachelor of Administration and Political Science degree at the University of Zimbabwe and joined the Zimbabwe Tourist Development Corporation in the public relations department before moving to marketing.

Mati later got a scholarship to study for a master’s degree in international hotel management in the United Kingdom. On her return home she joined Zimbabwe Sun Hotels, as reservations manager. In 1992 she joined British Airways as sales manager and later rose to area marketing manager for British Airways sub-Saharan Africa based in Johannesburg.

“I was part of a global marketing team. We would rotate meetings around the world. All of that laid the foundation of what you are witnessing today. I have so much experience from so many countries and I’ve actually stayed in some of the best hotels in the world.” Nyazema told a visiting Sunday Times reporter.

Between 2006 and 2016 Nyazema worked as the executive director of the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg South Africa.

When she decided to embark on the project of constructing a hotel in Victoria Falls, Nyazema invited Norman Wallace a former employee of Tsogo Sun in South Africa for a meeting to discuss the project. Wallace was accompanied to the meeting by a renowned interior designer, Ryan Illgner.

“The magic of this place is you have hoteliers who sat round the table and designed a hotel before involving an architect. The three of us knew the five-star standards, we knew what works and doesn’t work.”

Nyazema says the actual construction was tough as most of the materials had to be imported from South Africa. Her inspiration behind Mbano Manor Hotel’s architecture was a trip to the island of Bali, Indonesia, where she stayed in a secluded hotel situated in a tropical forest.

“It was exclusive and secluded it was absolutely amazing,” she says.

An estimated US$7million was required for the project, money which Mati and husband, Norman Nyazema, a renowned professor of pharmacology and businessman, could not afford.

Nyazema started the search for money in SA after putting together a comprehensive 44-page prospectus with all the financial projections. But no-one was biting.

“The Industrial Development Corporation even flew investment professionals to Victoria Falls to inspect the site but decided against investing.”

Eventually pension funds investing on behalf of sugar producer Tongaat Hulett and banking giant Standard Chartered came on board with construction funds.

“I probably made over 100 presentations for money, I’m not exaggerating. I know where every bank in town is. I know where every pension fund in town is,” says Nyazema.

After two years of building, the hotel opened its doors in January 2020. It has 18 employees mostly locals from Victoria Falls area. Nyazema’s spirits were not dampened when six weeks after the hotel opened its doors the Covid-19 pandemic struck which saw the country going into a lockdown.

“We believe in our country and we believe in the success of our country and we are going to do our two cents’ worth to actually make it a success.”

Matifadza is a Shona word which means you have made us happy. If Mati has not made her family and country happy, then who deserves that accolade?