CUSTON Maremare is a graduate of Mupfure Self-Help College which is run by the Zimbabwe Foundation for Education with Production (ZIMFEP).
He studied at the college from 2010-2012, and graduated with a National Certificate in Leather and Allied Studies.
Leather and Allied Studies involves the study of production of leather goods beginning with the process of tanning the leather.
He learned the process of tanning leather, from salting the leather and storing it, treating it with chemicals for easy removal of fur, skiving it to reduce bulkiness to the standard required for the item to be manufactured and finally using chemicals to permanently soften the leather.
After the tanning course he had to choose an area to specialise in from the following options; making handbags, upholstery and footwear.
He chose footwear although he still familiarised with the other two areas.
The footwear course taught him how to design shoes, cut the leather to the design specifications, setting and attaching the pieces and then stitching them, sole fitting, lining the shoe, and finally lacing and polishing or dying them.
Currently this young entrepreneur is running a shoe workshop at the ZIMFEP offices in Belvedere where he produces shoes that are as magnificent and durable as the best in the country and are more affordable than any reputable brand in the country.
He makes all types of shoes although at the moment he tends to concentrate on school shoes.
He struggled with his ‘O’ Levels, he attempted the exams three times before his passes could add up to the miraculous number of ‘five’.
He says that when he was at school, “I also wanted to do the courses that are supposed to be done by the learned, or maybe to be a teacher or a policeman.”
He had felt so bad that he had struggled with his ‘O’ Levels, he remembers a sermon in which the preacher castigated students for failing to get five ‘O’ levels, the preacher had asked how the country could make use of any of them if they could not even obtain five ‘O’ levels, it was said that such failures were as good as dead.
Given this context and background, he wondered how best he could proceed with his education career wise.
The only people who had come to his school to give career guidance were the police, no-one else came to the school, “it seems the school got the policeman to come so it could be said that some career guidance had been done at the school”.
“I didn’t know that shoes are made in Zimbabwe, growing up in rural Chimanimani, I didn’t know so, I thought they were made somewhere outside the country and then imported into the country.
“Young people growing up in rural Chimanimani, Mutare area would not know that shoes are made locally, let alone that any of them can make shoes.
“This course that I did is not offered at Mutare Polytechnic or at any polytechnic as far as I know.
“So I was at a loss for what to do.
“Something only dawned on my mind when I heard about indigenisation, that we should start our companies as indigenous Zimbabweans.
“So I realised that if I was to start my own company I had to be able to produce something that can sell, a product that people need, so when I heard of Mupfure Self-Help College, I decided to take up training that would equip me to make goods that people need.
“I did not choose motor mechanics, or some other familiar course, I reckoned there were not many people trained to make leather goods particularly shoes so I chose footwear.”
He has never regretted taking up footwear at the college, it opened a whole new world for him and he was excited.
The young entrepreneur has no reservations about the superiority of the quality of goods that he makes.
“I am making good shoes and my customers appreciate the quality of my shoes to the extent that even those who bought my shoes while I was still a student still look for me when they need new pairs of shoes,” said Maremare.
“The shoes are good quality shoes, but the challenge at the moment is the market. Out here in Belvedere few people know about us but our production can make quite some difference.”
To be continued
Dr Mahamba is a war veteran and holds a PhD from Havard University. She is currently doing consultancy work.