Imposing ‘Chicken Shark’ to open along Bikita Highway

An imposing business structure called the Vision Centre is emerging at the 45km peg along Masvingo-Mutare Road and it is bound to become the biggest countryside shopping mall in Masvingo Province.

It will be officially opened sometime in June.

Masvingo Mirror reported that speculation has been rife that the new structure is a food court being built by fast food outlet Inscor.

Only one thing is correct there; yes there will be a food court and much more. However, the building is not owned by Inscor but it has been constructed by a prominent Masvingo businessman and farmer, Jerry Mudzikisi.

The large building that has caught the eye of many a traveller along Masvingo Mutare Road is just after the Zaka and Gutu turn off at Roy.

It is a countryside shopping mall where customers will get a lot of products under one roof. Vision Centre, which is built in Mudzikisi's Rurgwi Farm is going to have a fast food outlet called Chicken Shark, a bar called Jakachaka, a mini-market called East Village, a wholesale for Delta products also called East Village and a hardware shop.

There will also be banking facilities.

"Vision Centre will be much more than a shopping mall as there will also be a leisure centre; a place where families will come for outings including outdoor games like basketball tennis and others. It is an outing outside town and we are promising the best facilities. It's also a form of decentralising services from the city centres.

"We are also empowering local people through the centre as they will supply agricultural products to the centre," said Mudzikisi.

Managers with experience in fast foods have already been identified and are ready to assume duty as soon as the centre opens.

Mudzikisi said his model business also targets highway travellers, particularly cross border travellers between Mutare and South Africa.

Mudzikisi who is also a chicken farmer keeping 20 000 broilers at any one time and 3 500 layers said chicken for the fast food outlet would also come from his farm.

Rurgwie Farm and the business centre are both owned by a company called Mhukuhuru Private Limited and the directors of the company are Mudzikisi and his wife Constance.

Mudzikisi who is a banker by profession and an expert in corporate tax said although he faced hurdles with the local community over the project to the extent of taking each other to court over a prohibition order, the issues were now over and he was focusing on the opening.

"The building is in a private property and it's my farm. The farm is mainly cattle ranching and horticulture. We have 20 hectares under drip irrigation," said Mudzikisi.

The project is obviously going to create jobs and the biggest beneficiaries are those from hotel management schools.

The constructor, Sylvia Makamure of S Makamure and Sons Builders said construction work started in September 2015 and the company is now doing finishing touches on the building.

There have also been downstream benefits during the construction period as many people got employed with some collecting river sand and pit sand and gravel, said Makamure