Welcome to Rosywood Mahemu Estate

The beginning

Rosywood Mahemu Estate has a unique history, one that stretches a couple of generations! It started with an ambitious young man, who always thought football was his greatest talent until he realized farming was his passion. Elias Munhundiripo Mahemu-Makandeni, bought the farm from a good friend, a local white farmer. Due to Elias’ nature of his job as Field Manager for Tanganda Tea Estate, he could not register the farm in his name as this would have been a conflict of interest. He decided to register in the name of a family member, Rebuen Moyoweshumba. This was a natural thing to do and the two families have been close ever since.

The protégé

Elias made it a point every time he visited the farm to take his 9-year-old son (Shandirayi, known as Shanda) with him. This would prove critical and the way Rosywood Mahemu Estate is shaped today. On a fateful day, 3rd of April 1987, Elias Munhundiripo Makandeni was shot on a normal day in his office, whilst doing the payroll for his staff. Unfortunately life at the farm changed and everything started to go downhill, as work could not continue due to all the children beging below the age of 12. The pinnacle was when Munhundiripo’s mother Mbuya Mauraye-aMutangi was the only worker left after Winmore (the only girl child left at the farm) left to go to boarding school. Reuben Mwoyoweshumba therefore gave her notice to leave the farm around 1997 as she was frail.

A few people tried to settle on the farm but without any success and they would just leave without being evicted. In 2014, Shandirayi, the second oldest son who is based in UK, started to engage the Mwoyoweshumba sons with clear intentions of fulling his father’s dreams, as he now shares the same dreams.

Ambition set

An ambitious plan was put in place and Shanda’s brother-in-law, Sydney Togara (the husband to Winmore – the last child of Munhundiripo to live on the farm), agreed to lead it. Sydney was running a successful business of his own but he agreed to leave everything behind and take on the project as the Managing Director, in the absence of Shanda who is based in UK. Sydney was asked to deliver a 5 year project in the space of a year and half!

Since November 2015 to date, over $1.5 million has been pumped into the farm and the project is on course to be completed by July 2017, which is a miracle in any form. The farm is completely mechanized with state-of-the-art equipment. From building dams and pivot irrigation to building a dream farm house – Rosywood Mahemu Estate, has changed the local community forever. It excites the whole Manicaland region as whole to see their locally grown son coming back home to invest back in the community that raised him.

Currently

Like they say, the rest is history, and today Rosywood Mahemu Estate is complementing the local Farms well by sharing ideas, and is on course to be the market leader in the production of potatoes, peas, bananas, avocados, beef cattle and dairy milk. Rosywood prides itself by doing the right thing both environmentally and ethically, whilst serving produce to the local and international markets.

Our ethos

Rosywood Mahemu Estate is a multifaceted farm, which specialises in potatoes, peas, cattle ranging, dairy cattle, bananas, avocados and macadamia nuts.

Our Ethos is simple and was handed down by the founder of the organisation, Elias Munhundiripo Makandeni – if you do the best you can, you automatically take care of your future and the future of your children. Because of that ethos, Rosywood Mahemu Estate’s emphasis is on the most humane and natural farming we can achieve, whilst thriving to achieve complete mechanisation so that we can ensure the produce we farm is the best of the best in the country, and achieve the highest possible yield. Over the course of each year, we intend to show many groups of people from local school children to farmer’s union groups over the Estate through the “Access-To-Farming-For-All” programme we run.

Community Involvement

Rosywood Mahemu Estate is closely integrated with its local community. We are involved in a lot of charitable organisations in particular Daisy Dube Children’s Orphanage. We help with groceries and connect the orphanage with exchange programs at overseas schools where they may visit for a few weeks and do charitable work at the orphanage.

All job vacancies are advertised in the local newspapers, in particular The Manica Post, to give local people the best opportunities to work at the best farm. This is consistent with our ethos to support the local community. Though Rosywood Mahemu Estate has developed into a large corporate organisation, the family values remain at the centre of all its activities, and with Shanda as its Chief Executive, that will continue up to the grandchildren of Munhundripo for many generations to come.

Ethos of Rosywood Mahemu Estate
Community spirit on Zimbabwe farm

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Contact us

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Address:

Rosywood Mahemu Estate
Lot 1 of Avontuur Extension
Subdivision 2
Chipinge
Manicaland
Zimbabwe

 

Email:

info@rosywoodmahemuestate.com

Our partners

Kuhn Tractors