A Konnect Africa Interview with Justice Chengeta: Writer, Newspaper Columnist & Founder of a Charity Movement in Zimbabwe

Hello Africa,

You are welcome to another Konnect Africa interview. How are you doing?

Today, we have on our hot seat, a young man with a large heart.

He is a Writer, Newspaper Columnist and Founder of the Life Builders Visit, a charity organisation that is focused on helping orphans grow into great leaders and world changers.

Today, we have with us Mr Justice Chengeta all the way from Zimbabwe. In this interview, he discussed about his projects, his writing, his inspiration and his words of wisdom for African youths.

So sit down, relax and enjoy the interview. Read on….

Tell us about Justice Chengeta – family, ethnicity, nationality, education.….

I am a 20 year old Zimbabwe born and based new generation Author, Motivational Speaker, Newspaper Columnist, Leadership Success Coach and Social Entrepreneur. I am a director as well at Foundation Clinique, a Botswana based youth mentoring organization and currently studying Bachelor of Honors degree in Accounting at Bindura University of Science Education in Zimbabwe. Lastly, I founded an African based charity movement, Life Builders Visit.

You are a director in Foundation Clinique. What is the organization all about?

Foundation Clinique is a Botswana based youth mentoring organization which focuses on matching mentors with young people who need or want a caring, responsible adult in their lives thus our the main goal is to is to improve the well-being of the child by providing a role model that can support the child academically, socially or personally. Currently, Foundation Clinique is achieving the goal through its Preschool that is based in Lobatse and it is under the administration of my mother, Mrs. Benedictor Mutamangira Chengeta, who happens to be the Founder and CEO of the organization.

Mentoring is an interesting subject. How effective is it in the development of an individual and the fulfillment of ones dreams and goals?

Yes indeed it is an interesting subject. First of all, let me say the word mentorship refers to the relationship that exists between an experienced, more knowledgeable individual and a less experienced and knowledgeable person thus the aim of the relationship is for the more experienced and knowledgeable person to impact such expertise to the less experienced and knowledgeable person.

Therefore, if an individual wishes to fulfill his purpose in the area of his gifting, he must look for an experienced and more knowledgeable person in the same field.

The Bible says in the Book of Proverbs Chapter 27 verses 17,

                      “As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend”.

Look closely at the two words of same purpose pointed out, an iron sharpening another iron. The Bible doesn’t say an iron sharpens a knife or hole, but an iron to iron.

This is important in that when people choose their mentors, you need to choose someone in the same line of what you hope to achieve. For example, a start-up musician should look for a well-established musician, an entrepreneur to an entrepreneur, a farmer to a farmer, a medical doctor to a medical doctor.

Let’s look at the benefit of having a mentor in your line of gifting. First and foremost, the reason why I found one benefit of mentorship is that if we are to trace of the benefits claimed by other coaching people, it will all go back to the one benefit, which is Gaining knowledge. You will gain detailed knowledge concerning your gift.

The importance of the knowledge you will gain will ensure you make decisions that will develop you to effectively use your gift. In addition, gaining knowledge from your mentor will allow your thinking to be stretched. Once your thinking is been improved continuously, you will gain an insight towards the steps to take in developing your gift for the benefit of the people.

Do you have any Mentors?

Definitely, l benefit from a pool of mentors. These include my Parents – Mr Justice Chengeta and Mrs Benedictor Mutamangira Chengeta, and Mr Norman Gwindingwi, the Director of Nottingham Business Consulting Services.

What are some of the achievements of Foundation Clinique?

Foundation Clinique is still a growing organisation and it has successfully opened a preschool in Botswana and more programs are to be introduced by Foundation Clinique.

You are also the Founder of the Life Builders Visit. Please tell us about this Initiative and what inspired it?

Life Builders Visit is an African based charity movement, as l said earlier on, which pays day visits to children’s homes. The aim is to teach and inspire the children to tap and release their God-given potential, which will contribute to the African’s economic and social development. Furthermore, it is to support the children’s home by sourcing and providing resources meant to carter for their day to day needs.

Now, the inspiration came when l came across statistics on the internet that describes Africa as the continent with the highest number of orphans and Zimbabwe being the leading country. However, the number touched me a little bit till l came to realise that God is the one who allows people to enter earth by birth to solve a particular problem through their gifts and l discovered that the current African community is crying for answers from the same people who are failing to provide such answers and it clicked in my mind that we were ignoring the orphans who have the answers we need.

Hence l decided to inspire them to tap and release the potential they have to contribute to the economic and social development. And as a reference, who would have thought that Ali Bongo, an orphan, would become the president of Gabon?

What would you say is the most important ingredient for uncommon success in running an initiative like Life Builders Visit?

I would say commitment and hard work are indeed the dual ingredient required.

You are also a columnist in the Sunday Mail Newspaper in Zimbabwe. What inspired it and how did you land the gig?

First of all, let me say this:

We need to be reminded that we did not choose to be on planet Earth but someone did. That someone is God, our Father, the Creator of Heaven and Earth. When God created the Earth, he wanted to rain the Earth but He did not. Why? It is because He wanted someone to manage the produce. The need of a manager by God led to the creation of the first human kind, Adam. Adam’s mandate was to manage the earth – in other words to bring the best out of the planet Earth.

In the book of Psalms, God owns the Heaven and Earth, but He gave the responsibility of management to men. The reason why many people fail to find the true reason why God cannot do anything about the crisis taking place in form of wars, financial crisis, attacks on the economic and social sectors is because people think it is God’s responsibility to ensure there is wellness on Planet Earth, forgetting it is our responsibility to ensure it is our mandate.

In addition, the reason why many people operate at poor decisions in their lives is not because of the devil. People need to put an end to blaming the devil for being the cause of our daily life problems. The devil has no equal chance for those who were reconnected back to God as our Father now through Our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the reason why we make poor decisions in life to live the purpose of God is not because of the level of education we get to attain skills in the academic area or all sorts of “misunderstood” reasons, but lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6)

The kind of knowledge here is different from the education we get from schools. You can get PHDs in certain areas of field but still live a sad life. The Knowledge here is the education that identifies the reason why God placed you on earth – the purpose. Such knowledge is wrapped up in the Bible. Such knowledge addresses a lot of issues such as who am I, where did l come from, why am I here and what should l do in certain circumstances?

To make it short, we need to identify our roles in life through knowing the purpose why God placed us on Earth. Once we discover the reason why God placed us on Earth, ideas and passions will flow within easily and we then serve it to the world. It is now the time we make up our minds to discover the reason why God placed us on Earth and solve the current problems prevailing across the globe. The reason why there are problems prevailing is because someone has decided to rob us by sitting on their talents, ideas and skills and they are causing us to suffer. Lets us work as a team and contribute to local, national and global economic and social development of our nations.

Therefore, l decided to write all the knowledge that l believe would provide an inspiration to people to identify their roles on earth and writing is an effective platform that l believe would be used from one generation to another, as the Bible we still use it till to date.

Would you call yourself a Writer?

Definitely l am a writer and believe you me, more books and articles are to come.

What has been your experience so far since you started writing for the newspaper?

The experience has been encouraging for me and l am surprised at the positive responses l am getting from the viewers of my articles. They are demanding more and l a starting to believe that this is the kind of knowledge that people have been looking for.

Do you write for other dailies (both online and offline) apart from Sunday Mail Newspaper? If yes, what are their names?

Currently, I am writing for the Sunday Mail newspaper and as for the online platform, I am working on it.

You are also a an undergraduate at Bindura University of Science Education studying Bachelor of Honors’ degree in Accounting. How do you combine your education with all the other things you are involved in?

l made a decision that during school period, l will focus on school only and whenever I am on holidays l would focus on serving people with my talent. However, l must say very soon l will be engaging someone who would assist me in operating the initiatives as l will be at school.

Where do you see your writing exploits 5 years from now?

From 5 years onwards, l believe l would have impacted the whole African continent with my writing skill by producing continuously books and articles.

What are hard-to-spot pitfalls that must be avoided in being a columnist for a national daily newspaper?

Being a columnist is sometimes discouraging as your information might be rejected and copied by other journalist who will then use it as their own but l must say Zimbabwe’s Sunday Mail has never displayed such to me.

Some people reading this interview might be interested in writing a column for a newspaper. Where can they start? What are the first steps they should take?

For all those interested in writing a column for newspapers in their respective countries, l say you should just simply submit your manuscripts to the media houses and if your information is rejected, do not give up and find other media houses for l believe in each country there are more than one media houses that publish newspapers.

If you had a list of ‘best-kept secrets’ [websites, books, materials] you’d recommend, which would you include and why?

I would encourage people to read books and articles by the late Dr. Myles Munroe and Les Brown for these are the two people whom l have been following and they provide simplified knowledge that will guarantee your success in this life.

What are three things you’ve told yourself that kept you going during your darkest hour?

Let me say it’s the word of God that gives me hope and light whenever l am in the darkest hour. Let me also point out that whenever l am in a dark hour, it is simply a reflection that I am unaware of some information, therefore l go back to the Bible to search for answers and greatly, this had helped me.

What are three life memories you recall most frequently and why?

To be honest, each day of my life l consider it to be a memorable one because each day gives me news lessons and hope for a better future in me. Each day l tend to discover new abilities and capabilities within me and l work towards developing them.

What is your inspiration? What keeps you going?

My inspiration is to teach and inspire people to discover the reason why God brought them on planet Earth and what keeps me going is each and every day l find a lot of people to share the word of God which will ultimately inspire them to identify their roles on Earth.

For you, Life is….

Life is a journey where God puts a treasure within you and it is our responsibility to discover the treasure and serve it for the benefit of the humanity. Birth and death are the marks for one to start and end his God given assignment respectively.

Africa will rise when…..

I must say Africa is rising and many people are beginning to realize that we are all equally important and God has given in each and every one of us a talent or gift which we should lead from.

What words of wisdom or advice would you like to leave with the youths of Africa? Inspire a young African in a sentence

To all African youths, we are because of what we invested our time in yesterday. Future is not an event ahead but within us. Let us become what God designed us to become for us to be successful.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

I would link to comment on the beautiful works you are doing through Konnect Africa and l believe many lives will be touched positively by your products and services.

In addition people can follow me on Facebook @Justice Chengeta and on Twitter .

Many thanks for sharing with us on Konnect Africa.

You are welcome, Arise.