Tsitsi Masiyiwa: wife of Zimbabwe’s richest man committing millions to supporting underprivileged people

By Forbes Africa

MEET Tsitsi Masiyiwa; she is the wife of Zimbabwean billionaire Strive Masiyiwa as well as a philanthropist. Before her husband became a billionaire, they were almost penniless and went through a rough patch, struggling to feed themselves and their children.

“We were so broke. We couldn’t even afford to give our visitors tea,” Tsitsi Masiyiwa said in retrospect in an interview with Forbes. “We were practically living from hand to mouth.”

Tsitsi Masiyiwa recounted that things were not always that bad. Before that, her husband had established Retrofit Engineering, an electrical contracting firm that handled lucrative construction contracts for the government and had built a considerable fortune, according to Forbes.

However, he saw his fortunes take a downturn in 1993 when he founded Zimbabwe’s first independent mobile telecoms network to rival the state-run telecommunication company, Zimbabwean Post & Telecommunications Corporation (PTC).

He was challenged and denied a license. When he took the matter to court, the government hit back, halting its business dealings with Retrofit Engineering. At the time, the Zimbabwean government was his biggest client. Soon, Retrofit saw its finances declining and Strive Masiyiwa could not afford to pay his workers. Eventually, he had to sell off the company’s assets and use the money to fund his court case with the government.

“So we were broke. In trying to understand what was going on around me, I began to do an intensive soul searching. Then I prayed to God and made a deal with him. I told God that if he granted us the license to operate the mobile phone company in Zimbabwe- and he made us successful, then I will help support as many poor people as possible for as long as I lived,” Tsitsi Masiyiwa recalled.