Good Morning Immediate Past President Mike, would you please furnish us with a brief professional and academic profile of yourself.
Good Morning Rumbi, thank you for the interview. Professionally, I’m an accountant with a local transport and logistics company, I trained as an accountant and auditor (financial and IT) with a Big 4 firm but my first job was as a helpdesk consultant with a local payroll software company.
Academically, I hold a Bachelor of Accounting Science degree with UNISA, and a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) exam pass (I just need to satisfy certain requirements to be a full holder of the qualification.
Define the District Rotaract Representative and which countries does he ‘govern’?
The District Rotaract Representative (DRR) is a Rotaractor elected by the Rotaract Clubs in the district (D9210 in our case). S/he serves as a liaison between Rotaract and Rotary Clubs, the Rotaract district committee (RDC) and Rotary International. S/he is “the Rotaract equivalent of the District Governor”.
Our district, 9210, comprises Zimbabwe, Zambia, (Northern) Mozambique and Malawi. According to Rotary’s register, there are 27 Rotaract Clubs in our district, of those, 14 are active and 13 are pending suspension and termination. The active clubs are spread as follows: Zimbabwe 9; Zambia 4; Mozambique 1; Malawi 0.
What are your present feelings about being nominated by your peers to run for this position?
I’m humbled by the nomination, it’s not every day that one is nominated to such a post with such responsibility. I just hope that if elected I can bring to the table what others have seen in me.
It has been said that the DRR and his/her committee have never enjoyed much visibility in terms of projects or fundraisers initiated. If elected, do you think you are likely to adopt a rigid business-like marketing strategy to improve the Public Image of the District Committee?
That’s true, in the past the DRR and the RDC have never been highlighted in the past. This now ending.
year, we tried to change that and decentralise the committee and its activities to get each country involved more and establish a good functional committee that meets the objectives set out by Rotary International. If elected, I aim to continue this decentralised approach to the committee in order to gain more ground and see how best we can publicise Rotaract on a national and regional level. The function of the committee is to bring all those great ideas that each club has and harness them for the good of the district and the program.
What are your thoughts on engaging the African Union to come up with Regional projects to improve our communities?
Engaging the AU would be a good idea but I believe in starting things from a grass roots level. There is a Multi-District Information Organisation (MDIO) for Africa called AFRICARACT which aims to bring Rotaract Clubs in Africa together. By getting our district model right and exchanging information and ideas with our peers in the rest of the continent, we can then harness the power of the collective to engage the AU as one united voice. Right now we are too fragmented to get a clear message across.
In the event that you do get elected, what sort of literacy and healthcare programs would you wish to propel forward?
We already have the various book donations happening across Zimbabwe spearheaded by Rotary Clubs and other organisations. I’d say for Rotaractors let’s take it down a level and go to the actual students because giving someone a book when they can’t read is a waste. I’d like to see us work with people of various ages (or the teaching institutions) assisting them to read and write while giving books to those who need them for a better future. In terms of healthcare, Our district is still plagued by the killer diseases, Malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS. We should work with organisations that already have a solid footing in these areas and assist in either eradicating them or at least reducing their prevalence. Zimbabwe is a special case in that because of declining infrastructure we are now faced with waterborne diseases that can be prevented.
In three words, what does the future of Zimbabwe post elections look like?
Change is slow.