The world never fully appreciates your effort when you are a woman, married to a rich, affluent husband, or even a tycoon.
People often assume that he is funding everything you have (which might be true), but not always.
These narratives tend to overshadow instances where the woman has established her success independently, especially if she initiated her business before marriage.
Zodwa Mkandla is one of these women. Yes, she appreciates that Ginimbi Kadungure might have contributed to some of her wealth, but he didn’t see her build Traverze Travels. She made it herself.
How did she do it, though, and who is Zodwa?
Zodwa Mkandla was born and raised in the outskirts of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, before moving to Harare.
Her parents were the corporate parents who wanted their kids to be teachers or nurses, but Zodwa had other ideas. She never wanted to be a teacher or a nurse.
She wanted to find a path different from what society modeled for her. That’s how she ended up looking for a chance to study for a diploma in Travel and tourism after her father introduced her to Nelson Samkange, who was in the industry.
Her first job was customer service, and she would sell tickets at a bus station before becoming a receptionist for a travel consultant.
Zodwa Mkandla’s relationship with Ginimbi is more known than her entrepreneurial achievements at Traverze Travels.
When you meet Zodwa in person, she looks stunning and can’t pass as a fifty-one-year-old. She looks like she can rule the world, and she sure is. She looks like those women who never settled for less.
She also looks like those who grab opportunities by the horns and smash anyone blocking their way. She always knew that what was meant for her was to be one of the most influential people.
She knew that the only way to do this was to put more effort into everything she was doing. True to it, Zodwa Mkandla is the Rihanna of Zimbabwe (business-like).
Look at the empires she’s built and the business she’s running. Don’t even start with the recognitions.
She’s been appreciated through various nominations like the International Woman of The Year Award 2017 and the Top 100 Women in the Tourism and Travel Industry.
She calls herself one of the biggest job trotters. She was a receptionist, tried baking business, and even went to selling suits. Business was not easy (and never is).
She has sold clothes, among many other hustles, because she has too much energy to venture into only one thing.
She never got to do the jobs she was doing for long because she was looking for something in her that these opportunities need to be providing.
She became a part-time teacher in her quest for better opportunities (bless her parents’ wish).
In her teaching days, she met one of the students who had the idea of starting a traveling company. The student was proposing they go into partnership together.
At first, she thought this could be some weary idea and fought skeptics but got to go into it anyway. She took the step, and in 2000, she was one of the founders of Travels in Zimbabwe.
The partnership and the entire company crew worked hard to bring this agency to great heights.
Zodwa would see how people got so enthusiastic about seeing a travel agency of their own and how many loved their work.
As a partnership of two people, she worked in all the offices to acquire all the possible skills to improve the services.
During this time, she realized she needed more independence and flexibility in decision-making and ventured into her travel agency.
In 2003, she left the company and formed her own travel company – Traverze Travel.
Traverze Travel is a travel and tours company that organizes travel for people worldwide and includes all the services one might need during their stay.
After a year, Traverze Travel had to go through a liquidation threat because its bankers went bankrupt.
Also, only a few people knew Traverze. Back then, most travel companies were owned by Zimbabwe’s whites.
Many travelers opted to use the white-owned agencies due to their familiarity and longevity in the industry. In the younger years of Traverze Travels, Zodwa recalls never paying herself.
The money that she was supposed to get from her salary was ploughed back into Traverze so that people could recognize it and so that they could be the best among the rest.
Did she give up, though? She did not; she decided to look for the things that would make Traverze stand out. That way, she got herself to walk in rooms with heads of corporate business stakeholders and promoted her brand.
She sold Traverse, and slowly, they started opting for her agency. There and then, people began recognizing Traverze more.
Many people all over the world started appreciating Traverse’s services. Increasing her marketing skills and promoting the brand while providing qualitative and quantitative services saw to it that people referred them to other people, and through the cycle, they got more people to trust them and give them a chance.
Traverze Travel is the first travel agency in Zimbabwe to own an executive lounge in Harare International Airport!
Traverze is recognized globally as one of the best tour and travel agencies in Zimbabwe and Africa. Zodwa has received many awards for taking Traverze to where it is.
She has made the travel industry get recognition in Zimbabwe and has worked with many clients worldwide. She knew this business would make it through; she had to put in much more effort than everybody else.
Sometimes, taking your business to a better place involves believing people will trust you. So, you put your all into forever maintaining that trust.
Blessed with two daughters, Zodwa is training her firstborn to take over Traverze because she feels that proper succession planning is at the core of building a family business empire.
To Zodwa, it is always about being passionate about what you love and working hard to make what you love get you to places you love. Sometimes, to make it all work, you must believe in yourself more than the noise around your life.
