UK based Zimbabwean, local entrepreneur invest in recreational Outdoor Adventure Park
By Delicious Mathuthu
A United Kingdom (UK) based Zimbabwean has partnered with a local Gweru based entrepreneur to invest in a family recreational outdoor adventure park dubbed Kumadhaka Adventure at the Gweru Show grounds.
The Kumadhaka Adventure project co-founders, Aaron Maveza, based in the UK, and Batsirai Ndanga based in Gweru, came up with the idea to breath life into the Gweru Show grounds with a hive of family recreational activities in the process also creating employment opportunities for local youths.
The project, which started in March 2022, was officially launched in August the same year during the annual Midlands Agricultural Show under a 5 year lease agreement.
The park offers several outdoor activities for kids and adults ranging from quad bike rides, target shooting, Archery, horse riding, darts, virtual reality, jumping castles, trampolines, go carts and several others.
This publication visited the park and caught up with the Kumadhaka management team, who narrated how the project came to be.
It was not all rosey, as Operations Manager Mr Jack Mashizha says, but commitment, persistence, zeal to learn and taking advice contributed to the project success.
“This lease was given to Aaron Maveza, one of the co-founders based in the United kingdom.
“The idea at the time was to have a kids play area, jumping castles and quad bikes but Aaron then engaged Batsi (Batsirai Ndanga), who is his cousin brother, just a week before he went back to the UK and got into a partnership.
“When Maveza went back, Batsi then redefined the vision of the project from a kidz play area to a family outdoor adventure park to offer activities for both adults and kids as we see it today, and they started investing into the project,” Mashizha said.
He said the first three months into the project did not really make sense as they realised that their vision of Kumadhaka Adventure needed more investment than what was in place.
They managed to raise some funds and get sponsorships from some local businesses to upgrade the park.
“We managed to get sponsorship like for the Zipline which we got through Midlands Metals, who sponsored everything for it.
“Glow Petroleum gave us funding as well,”
Mashizha said.
They are also working in partnership with the Zimbabwe Republic Police who provide horses for the horse ride activities.
In June 2022 Motocross Zimbabwe expressed interest in the now Kumadhaka BMX track and advised them to transform and adjust it to accommodate dirty bikes.
Mashizha says the journey has been a learning curve since day one and they are still learning and taking advice from stakeholders.
“So around June, July thats when we saw an improvement in business, it seemed people were now aware of us but we were not really ready for the crowds.
“We were also limiting our marketing because we were realising that there were some basic infrastructure that we needed, like people would ask where the toilets were and did not have any closeby.
“Initially this is not really like something we really had a plan for but we were learning as we go to attain our vision,” he said.
After the official launch in August, Mashizha says they started seeing an improvement, with more customers like schools now booking.
He said they are currently getting customers from as far as the Victoria Falls, Harare and even from the diaspora.
Investment
So far, on paper, the project managers say they have invested more than US$280 000 in the park in terms of money and all materials received and are still investing back into the park from their current proceeds.
“The money that we get is still being invested back to the business.
“So for us to actually recover the expenses that we have made so far we need about three years,” he said.
Employment
The project has so far provided fulltime employment for 5 people and more than 35 others on part time basis, mostly youths.
“When we train our employees we usually take attachees and students; most of our employees are below 25 years.
“We train a person and see their strengths and weaknesses, so when we have busy weekends, depending on the type of activities that will be happening, we then know who we need for that particular day or weekend.
“We train them on how to manage the activities and hire them for those specific activities,” Mashizha said.
After the massive investment, Kumadhaka Adventure faced a threat from the Midlands Show who wanted to change their initial lease agreement terms after realising the increase in activities, but the two parties quickly found each other again after interventions from some stakeholders.
Mashizha says they have plans to expand the project if the authorities at the Show grounds allow as there is free space still available, and extend their lease as well.
“They said they wanted to see first if we can do something productive then they may extend our lease because at the moment we have a standing lease for 5 years but we wanted 10 or more years.
“We are bringing life to Gweru Show grounds and aim to expand to other cities and towns.
“As we speak we have something already happening at the Golden Mile Motel (Kwekwe).
Kumadhaka Spokesperson, Mr Pride Reid said the secret to their success is taking advice and new ideas from stakeholders.
“We get ideas from everywhere, like you can have a vision but the details of how best that can be achieved comes from stakeholders.
“So they come in to give ideas and advise us because in the initial plan it was not there,” he said.
“We want to see Kumadhaka become a brand that is associated with specific outdoor activities wherever we setup.
“We want to duplicate the same activities that are offered here in Gweru in Bulawayo, Masvingo, Victoria Falls and so on.
“We want a situation whereby if you experience the Kumadhaka Gweru, when you go to Masvingo you get the same experience.
“We want to provide an environment where people can bond with their families,” Reid said.
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