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Leonard Ncube, Victoria Falls Reporter
HER wish was to venture into the catering industry but after failing to get a formal job, Ms Caroline Mudanda from Hwange had to break new ground.

She tried cross border trading and when the unpredictable economic environment affected her business, she ventured into brick moulding.

Ms Mudanda is 27 years old and has defied odds by becoming the only woman to brave the challenging brick moulding business in Hwange.

Determined to earn a living, Ms Mudanda has partially formalized her business as she is operating from a piece of land allocated by Hwange Rural District Council (HRDC) to small scale businesses for various projects.

She has started the process of registering a brick making business.

Ms Mudanda did her secondary education at Gebhuza and Hwange Government secondary schools and passed six subjects.

She trained in Hotel and Catering at ZimColleges in Bulawayo as well as Food Preparation and Professional Cookery, both at Dadani Technical College in Hwange and holds National Certificates for the three courses, but did not get a formal job, hence she tried brick moulding. It’s now paying.

She sells her bricks locally in Hwange, Victoria Falls and surrounding rural areas as well as in Lupane and Bulawayo.

“I thought I would run a kitchen but could not get funds. I tried cross border trading specializing in Table Charm products and I started with about 15 groups of women that I was supplying.

“This was good business until inflation and exchange rates affected the business. When I couldn’t afford to stock more products, I realized people were making money through barter trade where they were exchanging goods with bricks and I joined,” she said.

It was in 2017 when Ms Mudanda started the brick moulding business.

She said she did research trying to identify her niche and she landed on brick making as it was the only one viable business in Hwange at that time.

She has six people working for her at a site east of Hwange town. They use manual method of making bricks as they don’t have a machine and Ms Mudanda plans to buy one.

Before Covid-19 Ms Mudanda she employed 11 brick moulders and would make about 40 000 bricks per month.

Currently she makes between 10 000 and 20 000 bricks per month.

Normal price should be US$1 800 per 10 000 bricks, said Ms Mudanda, but Covid-19 has resulted in discounts.

When she started, she said, profit was 100 percent but that has declined to about 40 percent.

“When I started, I would get 100 percent of what I would have invested. If I put US$2 000, my profit would also be

US$2 000 but now prices have gone down because or Covid-19 and my profit is between 30 percent and 40 percent,” she said.

They make bricks using clay soil which they dig near some streams and mix with coal dust they buy from coal mining companies. Coal is used to burn the bricks in an oven to make then strong.

A tonne of waste coal dust costs US$29 per tonne excluding transport.

Ms Mudanda said this affects business as operating costs tend to be higher.

“When I have no bricks, I also get clients for other makers and get commission for it. We work daily although I have resorted to only supervising the workers and I go there probably after every two days.

“We work on targets and sometimes they are the ones that come up with the target because they are now used to the job since I have been with them for almost four years,” she said.

Ms Mudanda said Covid-19 affected business.

Ms Mudanda said when she started, she encountered challenges from male brick makers who she claimed sabotaged her business.

She said at some point she was a target of law enforcement agencies after some competitors pushed to have her arrested.

That is when she decided to approach HRDC and is one of the beneficiaries of land that was allocated to indigenous small-scale business mainly youths to start projects.

She said her competitors were jealous because she was getting more clients.

“I think clients found it safe to deal with a female supplier and many started buying from me which did not go down well with them. Some suppliers’ con customers and they therefore prefer dealing with females where there are less chances of fraud,” she said.

Ms Mudanda said her wish is to get funding and bigger tenders to supply bricks so that she grows her business.

She said she had planned to buy a brick making machine before Covid-19 broke out. – @ncubeleon.