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Flora Fadzai Sibanda, Chronicle Reporter

ESTABLISHED in 1958 by the late Mtshumayeli Joseph Ngwenya in Bulawayo, Pelandaba Buses, born out of poultry selling, is still growing 50 years later.

It is also proving to be a lifelong legacy for his children and the following generations. 

Ngwenya is said to have borrowed money from his father to buy a sewing machine as he was a gifted tailor. He used the machine to sew uniforms which he sold in Botswana.

After two years he realised he had to look for another business as he was not making much. He started buying roosters which he transported in his Bedford, a truck he had bought using his output from the tailoring business.

The late Ngwenya’s grandson Mr Bukhosi Ngwenya, who is now the manager of Pelandaba Buses said he has been told his grandfather’s chicken business flourished to a point where he was able to buy his first bus.

He said it is said he bought his first bus from Harare and drove it to his homestead.

Mr Ngwenya said his grandfather bought the first bus when he was 41 years and because of the oppressive settlers, it took him a year to get a public transporter’s permit as he was a black person. Mr Ngwenya said his grandfather named the buses Pelandaba as a way of celebrating that (seziphelile indaba mayelana ibhasi yami) in 1958 when he was finally granted his permit. However, since it was during the colonial times, they removed the “h” claiming to be correcting which is why it has no “h” up to today.

He said his grandfather branded his bus with meaning.  In an interview Mr Ngwenya who had not yet been born when the business was established and only got the history from his father, said:

 “My grandfather was business-minded. We have always been told he was a man who had a mind of a businessman. His first business was of tailoring. He borrowed money from our great grandfather to buy a sewing machine. He did not care about the stereotypes which followed men who were tailors in our village. He would sew uniforms mostly for Botswana school children since crossing over there using Shashe river was easy and the market was great. 

“Using the money from sewing he managed to buy one of the oldest Bedfords. After getting a car he decided to buy roosters which he used to sell in town at the old market place. The business flourished to a point where he was able to buy his first bus at the age of 41.”

Because his grandfather was a black person, it was a long process to get the buses registered and to allow them to run on the road.

“My grandfather finally got the permit in 1958. He was happy and he decided to brand his buses Pelandaba meaning seziphelile indaba mayelana ibhasi lami. He went on to brand his bus with a rooster symbol. This was to symbolise the source of his income for the first bus that he bought,” he said.

Mr Ngwenya said his late grandfather added more buses as business was doing well. He said all the buses have a certain person they are honouring, as he appreciated everyone who helped him grow his business.

“My grandfather named all his buses after certain people he was honouring. Some of the buses’ names include Sinothi who was his younger brother who used to help him in the business. 

Some of the buses are called SaMangwe as his way of honouring his daughters. Magudukubhema which honours my great grandfather who lent him his first capital for business which birthed the buses. His name was Magudu but because he loved smoking my grandfather added ‘kubhema.’ All our buses have a picture of a smoking pipe to show that my great grandfather loved smoking,” he said.

Mr Ngwenya said his great grandfather believed in working for the community. He made everything to be about the community so all his projects were community based.

“He built a school that was called Shwaba Primary School using his own resources and later gave the school to the community. The school has recently been changed to Mtshumayeli Primary School in his honour. 

“He also had agricultural land like the Malanje Farm that is 60km from Nathisa. The farm now specialises in cattle ranching. He was also the owner of Mbokodo Farm which was later sold when he passed on.   My grandfather also had a fleet of trucks which used to transport his produce, amongst other projects which he had that were benefiting the community,” he said.

He said as a way of serving the community, he has been told his grandfather devoted his buses to ferrying volunteers who wanted to cross to Botswana during the liberation struggle.

“Those who wanted to board with the intent of crossing Shashe river to Botswana would memorise the names and national identity numbers of the Pelandaba staff members. This helped whenever they came across roadblocks and where asked where they were going,” said Mr Ngwenya

He said his grandfather passed on in 1996 leaving his sons to carry on with the legacy. He said before he died, the sons had already shown interest on which part of business, they wanted to venture in.

He said his father chose to manage the buses while others decided to manage the trucks and the farms and other small businesses that his grandfather had on the side.

Mr Ngwenya said he has taken over from his father as he is now getting old.

He said the business is shaky and challenging, but he is confident they will be able to pull through and make it as a family. He said they now have over 40 employees including the drivers and coach makers.

“Times are now difficult. Covid-19 is the one which set us back. We were not functioning during that period.  However we had to pay our workers as we could not let them go hungry,” he said.

Mr Ngwenya said they still believe in giving back to the community.

“We still believe in respecting the community that is why in everything that we do we involve them. All the teachers who teach at our routes pay half price when they are boarding because we believe in order for them to teach the children properly, they need to be happy so giving them a half price allows them to go and see their spouses every weekend. We also have a fleet of our buses working under Zupco. We did this as a way of helping the community as transport was now a problem. It was also as a way of encouraging other buses to join as we are one of the oldest companies,” he said.

He said they rebranded their old buses with a new design but they did not run away from the old ways. He said rebranding the buses has been difficult as the community still regards the buses as theirs.

‘We had to rebrand our buses and add new coach buses. However, we did not lose the original idea as the community would have killed us. They still treat the business as their own. So, if you do something that they do not like they will start telling you that Mtshumayeli would not have done that. When we realised that they did not like the new buses we decided to rebuild the old buses. We rebuild our buses from scratch right here at the garage,” said Mr Ngwenya.

He said his grandfather left a legacy of wisdom and that is the greatest wealth he could have given them. He said they now have a fleet of 24 buses including those working under Zupco.