Fashion designer with big dreams

“I was not sure myself when it all started as a schoolgirl, but the passion I had kept growing, to the point where I could not resist it anymore and I knew that I had to do something about it,” she told The Zimbabwean this week.

Born to a rich family, most young women would feel too comfortable to start something of their own, but not Gwete.

“My family ran many supermarkets around the country, including in Rusape and Mutoko, but as someone taught that hard work always paid, I knew I would not be comfortable in reaping what I did not sow. So I wanted to do something that I could one day look back on and tell my children that it came from my own sweat,” said the mother of two.

And sweat she started to do when she enrolled for Fashion and Design at the Harare Polytechnic. The path to becoming a professional clothes-maker was more than she had thought it would be.

“I had to learn a lot of new things. I had to make something different from what was already in the market and I had to do it professionally. Each new technique was laden with its own challenges and practical obstacles, but the will in me refused to let go,” she said.

“Breaking into the market did not come easily, especially after both my parents died and I had to start afresh in business, so I decided to work and invest towards start-up capital,” she explained.

For about four years, she worked as a receptionist with various companies in Harare, from where she got the money to start her own business in 2006.

“I became a fulltime businesswoman and focused on sewing dresses, suits, bed covers, shirts and curtains. When the market began to shrink in Zimbabwe due to the economic problems, I began to sell my products in South Africa as a cross-border trader.

“I later realised that the market was better here than back home, while there was also cheaper material and favourable operating costs. So I decided to relocate to Pretoria, where my products are selling well.

“As a small business still growing, I have concentrated more on Pretoria and its vicinity, but I hope to expand to other cities as well because my desire is not only to make it in business, but also to become a source of employment for more and more Zimbabweans who continue to be exploited by employers in this country,” she said.

“I am very happy that I have managed to give my children more than just a decent life from this business. I have created a legacy that they will carry on when they get older. They still live in Zimbabwe, where there is much poverty, but the fact that they are counted among the rich has given me some form of personal pride, more so because this all came from my own hands. My biggest wish now is to transform the lives of more and more women back home, so that they are empowered to stand on their own in this unfair world.”

Gwete is now seeking to diversify. “I think I have made enough headway as a businesswoman and now is the time for me to start something new. I am in the process of trying to open a driving school in Harare to try and empower the community, especially women,” she said.

“We women cannot always play second fiddle to men as if we are sub-human. It pains me that when rich Zimbabweans are mentioned, women’s names only come up as spouses and not successful people in their own right. There is a lot of competition, but we have to show that we can compete as well, despite the obstacles we keep facing. I already have qualified fashion designers in my company – all women – who earn a minimum monthly salary of $200 back home. My ultimate desire is to return and establish a very big fashion factory in Zimbabwe.”