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Mrs Peace Muregi-Pundu

Ruth Butaumocho Gender Profile
Children with studious parents often find themselves expected to measure up to their guardians’ academic capabilities, or even surpass them.Any attempts to deviate from the norm is often frowned upon.

Mrs Patience Muregi-Pundu is one such person who found herself at crossroads with her parents when her attempts to exhibit her entrepreneurial skills during her school days were met with fierce resistance.

Born to a mother who was an accountant and a father who was a personnel manager and being the first born, Mrs Muregi-Pundu was naturally expected to maintain and sustain the family’s record of academic excellence.

Deep down, she knew she had to nurture her entrepreneurial skills, albeit clandestinely for fear of being reprimanded.

Little did her parents realise, she would one day run a business empire.

Mrs Muregi-Pundu is the owner and founder of Golden Knot Group, which houses several companies namely Golden Knot Legal Aid Society, Golden Knot Funeral Services, Golden Knot Legal Executor Services, Ocean Waves Junior School situated in Rydle Ridge Park and Hyrank Debt Management Services.

Golden Knot Legal Aid society currently has a staff complement of 170 and has several branches in the country’s major cities that include Bulawayo, Mutare, Chiredzi and Masvingo. It recently opened another branch in South Africa, with plans to expand its operations to other countries in the region.

Efforts by Mrs Muregi-Pundu have not gone unnoticed and she was recently named the Top Female Business Leader while her organisation, Golden Knot Group, also got an award under the Zimbabwe Leadership Business Awards held in Harare recently.

“I had always been an entrepreneur from my school days. One day my father was called to school after I was caught selling sweets and other trinkets to my schoolmates,” Mrs Muregi-Pundu chuckled during an interview last week.

From her school days, she has risen to become one of the country’s most respected and hard working entrepreneurs, who built her business empire from nothing, but merely buoyed by passion to succeed.

With little or no background in business her trump card was passion, powered by a determination to go beyond the expected.

From her humble business background, which started off in school, intermittently blowing hot and cold, and her first attempt to venture into business while running a typing and photocopying services with a friend at St Andrews House in the capital, Mrs Muregi-Pundu has come a long way.

She has had her hands on literally every business project from secretarial services, catering and to her recent portfolios that encompass education, legal aid services and funeral insurance.

While she does not claim to be an expert in all the fields, what she is clear about is her passion for entrepreneurship, which she has been nurturing for decades.

“Sometimes passion alone can be the biggest driver in starting and sustain a business,” she said.

For someone who had always had an entrepreneurial mind, Mrs Muregi-Pundu – then only 19 years old – realised an opportunity to run a business when one of her friends, Precious Chido Kuda, was asked by his uncle to take over his secretarial business.

“My friend was about to turn down the offer when I persuaded him to take over the business, explaining to her that it was a chance of a lifetime to run a business,”

Convinced the decision would give them a competitive edge, the two immediately took over the business, offering secretarial to students.

It was while they were running the secretarial services at St Andrews Building that a catering opportunity came about.

“We used to prepare our lunch at the premises, so one day some students enquired where the aroma of prepared food was coming from. We explained to them that we were preparing our lunch and it was not for sale.

“They convinced us to sell some to them and we reluctantly did. However, from that day, demand grew and we decided to start a catering service,” she recalled.

Mrs Muregi-Pundu with her husband and children

Her catering business expanded to unimaginable levels when she got a job with the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, where for a long time, she offered catering services to the union and its affiliate organisations – though it was in conflict with her employment contract.

Realising that she would lose her job should her employer finds out about the catering business, Mrs Muregi-Pundu abandoned her project.

However, deep down, she yearned to resuscitate the project.

“After working for yet another company, RAE Holdings, after leaving ZCTU, I realised that I had to revive the project and continue with my catering project. I left full time employment,” she recalled.

That decision gave birth to a fully registered catering company – Airofin Catering Services – that was catering for big companies.

With orders of about 1 700 meals in a day, business was looking up, recalled Mrs Muregi-Pundu.

Little did she know that like a bubble, the project would burst sooner than expected.

“Working with big organisations, proved to be a serious challenge. It would take them a month or two to pay me for the services rendered and yet I continued catering for them.

“I had no option but to wind up operations and close down,” she said.

It was while she was brainstorming with her husband, Mr Douglas Pundu who is a lawyer, that the idea of running a legal aid services firm came up.

Mrs Muregi-Pundu teamed up with some business associates and formed Wise Owl Legal Services. Soon after starting, the group ran into problems of ideological differences, forcing her to pull out completely.

Convinced that she could fare well in the legal aid provision, Mrs Muregi-Pundu eventually formed Golden Knot Legal Aid Society and like they say, the rest is history.

Despite her monumental achievements in business that have seen her build an empire with the support from her husband, Mrs Muregi-Pundu concedes that the road has not been smooth.

“I have gone through tumultuous periods in business, but I have had to soldier on. I believe we learn as we grow,” she said.

She, however, urged women to identify their calling and pursue it with passion and excellence.

“Go for the blue oceans rather than being a copycat otherwise you will always be second best at your best.

“Look for fresh and novel ideas and innovate continuously,” said the mother of three.