Life begins after age 65

Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter

OFTEN, when some long-serving professionals reach retirement age, they find themselves lost, with their lives seemingly losing the purpose and direction that their job gave them.

Without the daily demands of their nine-to-five, they find themselves rudderless, having lost the one thing that served as their compass as they entered the twilight years of their lives.

One man, who is defying this stereotype is Mr Zenzo Ngwenya, a long-serving Zimpapers staffer who exited the company as the production manager at its Bulawayo branch after 45 years of service earlier this year.

At the age of 65, Mr Ngwenya has found a new lease of life outside the printing press, operating a small mine with a close friend in Bubi District, Matabeleland North.

Mr Ngwenya’s own hunger for life and his drive for success beyond his place of employment for 45 years was matched by his Zimpapers’ desire to give a cushioned landing to its departing employees, with the company rewarding his long service with mine equipment of his choosing when he finally called it a day.

“Life after work is progressing well,” he told Sunday News in an interview. “I am now using machinery that was bought for me by Zimpapers for some of our operations at the mine. I have a hammer mill that was acquired for me by the company and together with a friend of mine we are forging ahead with business.

We cannot say it is a thriving enterprise because in business you always wish for more, but the truth is that we are surviving.”

While Mr Ngwenya acknowledges the importance of the equipment in this new stage of his life, he also points to education that he got while at the company as a resource that has helped him take up to mining like a duck to water.

Despite finding a second lease of life elsewhere, he acknowledges that he misses the sweet smell of freshly printed newspapers and the camaraderie of colleagues at a place that he called his “second home”.

“To further my career, I did a lot of courses over the years, and I thank the company for giving me the room to grow academically. The knowledge that I gathered here and in those courses is the same knowledge that I am putting into practice at my mine, helping the guys that I am working with down there.

I learnt a lot here. Our managers were always forthcoming, and our CEO (Pikirayi Deketeke) is a down to earth person who is not aloof and that applies to a lot of our management.

I admire Mr Prosper Dube, Mr Shayamano and other guys that I worked with over the years and that is why I refer to this place as my second home. Truthfully, I miss it,” he said.

When he walked into the offices of the then Rhodesian Herald in 1979 as a printer, Mr Ngwenya never thought that he would one day oversee the production process of the flagship media company’s major publications in Bulawayo.

“The first few years when it was still a white-dominated workspace were not nice because of the rampant racism. However, as time went on after independence, they also adapted to the changing landscape and the situation got gradually better.

“. . . People should realise that I was not a manager for 45 years. I worked my way up gradually. Yes, for the last few years I was a manager, but I started from being an apprentice and rose going up and up. This is particularly a message that I want to give to young people that are starting their careers. No one starts from the top,” he said.

Recently, Mr Ngwenya has been the subject of a smear campaign on social media, with some unverified and questionable news publications claiming that he had left the company empty handed after 45 years of service.

This, Mr Ngwenya said, was the shameless work of some shadowy characters that sought not only to soil his reputation, but also to besmirch a company that was all he had known since he was a strapping 20-year-old.

“I call this my second home. When you get to any workplace, there are always terms and conditions between the employer and the worker, and as far as I am concerned all those were fulfilled. Apparently, according to social media I left with nothingness, and I am now in Nkayi my home area. The truth is that I am now based in Bubi where I am a small miner. The machines that I use at that mine, down to the shovels and torches, were bought by Zimpapers so I am very grateful.”

He continued: “I don’t know where these people are getting the stories from. On the 1st of April, after I had logged off from my workplace, there was a story telling a lot of fibs about me. To those that read those reports, I would like to make it clear that social media is news to the uninformed. People should not believe that.

I don’t know these people and they have never interviewed me. If they met me on the streets, they wouldn’t be able to pinpoint that this is Zenzo Ngwenya. Maybe some people are just singing for their supper to a master that has yet to reveal themselves,” he said.

After 45 years, Mr Ngwenya said it was not the grand gestures that he remembered fondly about Zimpapers, but the little things that showed that the company cared for its employees.

“Zimpapers took care of us a lot during my time here. You could get help in acquiring houses or cars and this was all done to your own wishes. Sometimes, you always look at the big things that a company did but for me, you felt the support even in small things.

I remember a long time back during a transport crisis, they provided a bus to take us to and from home and that felt great because we were already getting our transport allowances,” he said.

Over the course of four decades, Mr Ngwenya saw the printing press evolve from the basic Linotype Machine to more complex and digital methods as technological advancements happened.

With the present and future of the world now digital, Mr Ngwenya expressed his belief that Zimpapers stood more than a fair chance of withstanding any headwinds brought about by changing times.

“Zimpapers is also vulnerable to the volatile nature of any economy so that will always take a toll. Technology is also making vast changes to the media landscape, but I would say with the resilience of the people at Zimpapers and the quality of management, we have pulled through and I have no doubt that this will continue to be the case,” he said.