First Day in the Office

Well my first day in the office was a series of surprises... My job is Strategic Development Advisor at the Federation of the Swazi Business Community in Manzini - the commercial and industrial centre in Swaziland. Part of it is building the capacity of the organisation to represent its members - small and medium enterprises. The other part is working directly with members to build their own skills and businesses.

Surprise #1

Someone from FESBC was supposed to be picking me up between 8 and 8.30 and Gemma assured me they would be late... Imagine my surprise when man turned up at 7.50 in a rather splendid Mercedes... His name was Zwelly Zulu, he's a board member and has a penchant for chilled out house music from South African DJs. The rest of the day was surprising in different ways.

Surprise #2

The job description said I would be managing an accountant, an administrator and an office assistant. The accountant and the office assistant left two years ago, and the administrator, Zanele, has been running the place ever since. There's a receptionist (Khulile), and an accountancy graduate (Khosy) who joined three days' before and is working for nothing to get some experience - the job market in Swaziland is pretty grim.

(Left to right: Khulile, Zanele and Khosy).

Surprise #3

The office...a reception desk, two windowless rooms, one desk and chair between three of us, and a meeting room. The meeting room is four garden tables and chairs with what looks like wedding decorations. White and purple covers, and some articifial rose flower arrangements.

Surprise #4

The job description said there would be a pc with a printer - didn't realise that meant one pc and printer between me and Zanele and Khosy and Khulile. With a dial-up connection. And one phone line - for everything, and everybody. The picture is Khosy and Zanele at the one desk in front of the one PC and printer.

So...then I met some of the board members. Two blokes (as well as Zwelly) and three women. They included Mr Mabuza (Hezekiel - though I suspect he'll always be Mr Mabuza to me) , the second VP, who's my boss, who owns five different companies - including office furniture (yay, surely!), office machinery (yay!) and stationery (yay!). Thuli, the first VP, who has been given the job of mentoring me. I quizzed them on FESBC, they quizzed me - I think I acquitted myself ok, but was probably a bit full on!

Surprise #5

It's not clear how many members they have...somewhere between 80 and 1000 as far as I can tell(!). First step will be setting up a database. Help me Con!

Then Zanele and Khosy took me for a walk around Manzini to orientate me. Manzini is very HOT. In a Queensland type of a way. No sunscreen on so I just copied Zanele and put my umbrella up. Very Singaporean...

I guess the biggest concern is how I get all the information out to start putting plans together. People who've been here a while have warned me about how hard it is to get things done - everyone wants to be involved in everything but not necessarily in making a decision - evidence of that even on my first day. I just want to get stuck in and start planning...so much needed...sources of funding, working out what members get/want for their money, working out who the members are, etc etc. I am excited though it will be a huge rollercoaster in terms of ability to get things done. Some really nice people though...