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Bongani Ndlovu, [email protected]

WHEN his football career was cut short by circumstances that he does not want to share, Mr Allen Twalumba Sibanda had to think long and hard about his future and decided to explore his surroundings.

Mr Sibanda says he played for Tsholotsho FC, Hwange FC and ZPC. He was part of young people who were pitching at the ZITF Innovation Forum on Tuesday when the trade fair opened. Mr Sibanda was representing Twalumba Bricks, a company he founded in 2020. 

The innovation forum programme, which ended yesterday, was sponsored by ZB Financial Holdings and the United Nations Development Programme in conjunction with Elevate Trust under the theme: “Empowering Youth-led Innovation for Industrialisation and Trade Development.”

Mr Sibanda said in 2020 he saw that he was surrounded by heaps of coal waste that had been accumulating for years as Hwange is a coal mining town. He realised that there were people in his surroundings who were producing bricks manually and he decided to join the bandwagon to produce his own.

Working hard from 2020, Mr Sibanda was getting orders here and there and as things were about to shape up, the Covid-19 pandemic broke out. However, after restrictions were lifted he started operations and then a ray of hope came along.

Government started working on the Hwange Thermal Power Station Unit 7 and 8 expansion project and this offered Mr Sibanda and other brick makers an opportunity to sell bricks to the power utility.

Mr Sibanda said he was approached by one of the companies working on the project which wanted 400 000 bricks.

“I could not supply that much because I was moulding the bricks manually and as such I could only supply 40 000,” he said.

Mr Sibanda said he was now looking forward to supplying bricks to Lake Gwayi-Shangani project and the Batoka Gorge project in Victoria Falls.

“The advantage I have is that my bricks are cheap because the raw materials are readily available for free. I use coal peas and coal nuts and slurry and this is similar to cement and the difference is colours. I then burn the bricks at high temperatures to make them strong,” said Mr Sibanda.

He said business has been growing steadily and people have been warming up to his bricks. Mr Sibanda said his company is registered and all his bricks are tested each year by the Hwange Local Board for quality.

He believes with a brick making machine he will be able to produce more bricks and employ more people to grow his business.

“I have supplied bricks for construction of houses in Victoria Falls and Bulawayo. 

Lizwe Sweswe, former Tsholotsho FC coach and now Sheasham coach, is among the people who have used my bricks to construct their houses in Bulawayo. What I need is capital to buy a machine so that I can mass produce the bricks, said Mr Sibanda. 

He said at the moment when he gets a big order, he engages contract workers to assist him mould the bricks.

“There is great potential to expand the business and all I need is capital injection to buy a brick moulding machine because the quality of my bricks has been accepted by the market,” said Mr Sibanda.