Carol, the emerging liSwati textile investor
MBABANE – EmaSwati have known the textile industry as a business terrain for the big conglomerates or companies from Taiwan.
This is due to the fact that the textile industry requires massive capital investment and high level of know-how in the technical and administrative aspects of the business.
At 48, Carol Mziyako is now one of the serious local investors in the country. When one mentions the biggest textile companies in the country, the list is incomplete without Mtfombeni Investments.
Basically, Mtfombeni Investments Group of Companies employs 600 people. The target is to employ 800 employees or more.
So far, the factory supplies the local, South African and Mozambican markets. It is based at Mahlabaneni in Big Bend, outside the peri-urban area. It was built at a cost of E15 million.
She built the factory last year since the space where she was running the business was becoming too small to accommodate diverse departments and the variety of business interests she has created as part of the company’s expansion programme.
When the factory matures in all aspects, she says the company is determined to supply the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) market.
Since its enactment in 2 000, the AGOA has been at the core of United States of America (USA) economic policy and commercial engagement with Africa. This market provides eligible sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to the USA market for over 1 800 products, in addition to the more than 5 000 products that are eligible for duty-free access under the generalised system of preferences (GDP) programme.
It must be said that Carol’s dream to be a shrewd seamstress manifested when she was a pupil at Ndzevane High School in the Lubombo Region.
Her favourite subject was Home Economics. Upon completion of her senior secondary education, Carol, the Managing Director of Mtfombeni Investments
did not like the idea to look for a white collar job.
In fact, she, as a risk-taker, believed in entrepreneurship as a gateway to her dream to be a job-creation-centred businesswoman. She envies successful businesswomen like Bridgette Motsepe, the Executive Chairperson of Mmakau Mining (Pty) Ltd and Pan African Parliament (PAP) Ambassador for Women Entrepreneurship and Economic Development in Africa.
INDUSTRIES
Bridgette, the elder sister of billionnaire Patrice Motsepe, is the International Businessperson of the Year (2008). That’s the woman Carol looks up to, one of the richest women in the league of South African female billionaires like Wendy Appelbaum, Wendy Ackerman, Irene Charnley, Sharon Wapnick, Elizabeth Bradley and others. The country’s textile and apparel businesswoman urged other women to overcome fear and venture into gigantic industries which are presently dominated by men.
She acknowledges the contribution Eswatini women have made to the economy who but not limited to Senate President Lindiwe Dlamini, a noted hotelier, Sylvia Mthethwa, Dumsile Sigwane, Manzini South MP Thandi Nxumalo, Thandi Maziya and others.
Carol is happy that she has a family that understands and supports the company’s vision, singling out her husband as a vibrant and committed person in her circle of trust.
She is married to Rosewell Simanga Mziyako, the current General Manager of Mtfombeni Investments. Rosewell is a former Crop Production Manager of the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation, now Royal Eswatini Sugar Corporation (RES Corp).
She began her business, at a small scale, in 1998. She said Home Economics comprised of sewing, the craft she liked the most. Since she believed in entrepreurship, she bought a sewing machine to produce African attires.
She sold those attires to teachers. Pivoting her business model to stay afloat, she diversified it, she sewed school uniforms. She rented a place where she produced the school wear.
Carol employed five people. “I ended up getting lots of orders from schools, like tracksuits,” she said.
The breakthrough came in 2002 when her company was awarded a tender to make workwear for cane harvesters.
INTERVIEW
“This was a stepping stone. The rest is history,” she told the Times SUNDAY in an interview. Carol, the MD, thanked the authorities of the country, His Majesty the King, Her Majesty the Indlovukazi, Government of the Kingdom of Eswatini and the workforce alongside her family for contributing to her company’s success in one way or the other. She thanked EswatiniBank for financing the construction of the factory shell. “I can say a lot about the structures that contributed to the success of the business but let me reserve those complements for another day,” she said.
For a business to succeed, she emphasised that it should get capable, honest and dedicated management staff and a happy workforce.
Likewise, she mentioned that she assembled a wonderful management team comprising of Mziyako, the GM, Thobile Fakudze, the Productions Manager, Buhle Mvila, the Human Resources Manager, Thembi Mndvoti, the Cutting Department Manager and Mpumi Gumbi, the Coordinator. There are other departments like accounting, procurement, maintenance and several others that form part of the company management.
The company has also built an internal clinic, wherein it would soon employ a resident nurse to take care of the health of the workers.
The company has a showroom at Goboyane in Big Bend, near USA Distillers. That is where clothes, mainly for the local market such as footwear, bicycles, helmets, and workwear are produced for companies such as Eswatini Electricity Company (EEC) and Ubombo Sugar. They also produce heavy duty raincoats, light duty rainsuit, herbicide aprons, cane smocks, arm protectors, knife bags, fertiliser bags, banana harvesting bags, raparound aprons, pesticide aprons, fashion clothing, contsuits/overalls and leg guards.
Thobile Fakudze, the Productions Manager, said the company, so far, has eight operational lines. She explained that each line has 40 highly advanced sewing machines.
This, therefore, translates to 320 machines. She said the company was still buying more machines in order to be a fully fledged entity. Fakudze said the