Obert Mpofu's empire

"AT the end the acquisition of wealth is ignoble in the extreme. I assume that you save and long for wealth only as a means of enabling you the better to do some good in your day and generation," wrote Andrew Carnegie, a philanthropist and business tycoon.

Yes, there are some people and couples in the country who have managed to acquire so much wealth for themselves, wealth which might outlive their lifetime, which even when their children's progenies decide to spend with reckless abandon will take time to ground.

One such couple is Umguza Member of Parliament Dr Obert Mpofu and his wife, Sikhanyisiwe, whose still growing empire has always been a contentious political issue. The two are fulltime politicians.

Perhaps if they were not into politics, the talk, contention and controversy surrounding their wealth could probably have been less.

The Mpofus' business empire includes a bank, lodges, transport and borehole drilling companies.

But it is their homestead in Village 14, Ward 5 in Nyamandlovu, which has made many marvel at the couple's lavish lifestyle.

The homestead arguably the most expensive rural home in Matabeleland, has a suburban main house, conference centre, four hatcheries, industrial kitchen, three chalets, three houses for servants and two guard sheds. Other exquisite features include a pond and fowl runs for swans, ducks and peacocks.

They even have a building dedicated to their laundry.

Outside the main compound stands industrial size fowl runs with a holding capacity of 100 000 birds, a tobacco curing plant and giant water tanks.  About 200 villagers, a majority of them women, are employed at the homestead with 100 working on the tobacco field.  Sunday Leisure visited the Mpofus who revealed that their massive homestead, like Rome, was not built in a day.

Dr Mpofu said the entire developments were made over a 15-year period and were largely financed by cattle ranching.

He boasts of more than 1 800 beasts.

"We have had this place for several years and we develop it all the time. The developments were not an overnight thing," said Dr Mpofu.

"We had 10 000 chickens which have been sold and a new batch is coming. This is an ongoing process which we have managed to sustain through other farming activities and that is how we have managed to run this place."

He said the wealth he created continues to grow because his projects finance each other.

Mrs Mpofu, a self-confessed nature lover, has bird baths and feeds birds of the sky, an act she said she enjoys.

"I enjoy feeding birds and they have now become accustomed to me. It gives me a lot of satisfaction and when I am away, I worry over who will feed the birds," she said.

Mrs Mpofu said some of the features of their homestead were shaped by their political life.

"As you can see, there is a gazebo which doubles up as a conference centre. This is where we host many of our guests. We have a number of visitors that come to the homestead as we are legislators. We also host a lot of events and the gazebo is the perfect place for it," she said.

The couple said they always invite local traditional leaders to  consult on various issues to make use of the massive conference room. Dr Mpofu, who comes from a large family, also hosts many of his kith and kin at his homestead.

The couple said the only time they separate with the people is when they retire to bed. The many guests are catered for in the industrial kitchen, which is complete with beef cutting machines, chicken-cutting machine, two state-of-the-art cold rooms and other fittings.

The industrial kitchen doubles up as a slaughter house for their chickens.

Mrs Mpofu said the kitchen inside the house was only for domestic use and could not cater for the many guests they  regularly have.  A woman's home is not a home without any kind of garden.  Mrs Mpofu has a portion of land where she grows maize, groundnuts, water melons, tomatoes and a lot more to feed her family and friends.

Dr Mpofu said they have managed to bring a lot of change to the lives of villagers by involving them in various activities.

Mrs Mpofu is constructing a pre-school that will reduce the distance travelled by young children as the nearest school that offers grade zero is more than 10 kilometres away.

"I was pained when I noticed the children walking that far to attend lessons, so I decided to construct a pre-school and I am sure the children can now all go to school," she said.

A feeding scheme is also in the pipeline for school children while several classroom blocks for a secondary school have also been constructed. The Mpofus revealed that 75 percent of their income from their businesses and remuneration from Government goes to the community.

"About 75 percent of our income goes to assisting the community in various issues. We assist the aged, widowed and disadvantaged who are in our midst; we also pay school fees for primary school children in this constituency. We got 200 tonnes of maize in our last harvest but we did not sell it, instead we fed the community and they appreciate it very much," Dr Mpofu said.

A question that one would ask is why such a huge investment in a rural area when many people are investing in urban areas.

"It is a myth that investing here is not viable. Look at what we have done, we are managing and realising a lot from this investment. City life on the other hand is expensive and rather noisy. As senior citizens, we want peace and tranquility and this is only found far from the city.

"We have very little that we call expenses as we have enough land that we got through the land reform programme. We managed to construct our home over a long period of time and some resources were readily available so it was not too costly," he said.

Dr Mpofu said since they grew up in the rural areas, they were unable to separate themselves from the countryside environs.

The couple said there was a lot of investment potential in the villages just like there are opportunities in the city and people should make that bold move of creating suburbs and businesses deep in the villages.