About Unifreight Africa

Patrick Chingoka is currently the Managing Director of Thomas International Management Systems (Private) Limited and High Post Consultants (Private) Limited, having previously held the position of Group Personnel Executive of Apex Corporation Limited. Patrick is currently the longest standing Director. He is also Chairman of IT Solutions (Private) Limited and Navistar Insurance Brokers. His other directorships include Beverly Building Iness Trading (Private) Limited. Patrick is a citizen of and resides in Zimbabwe.

Robert Edward Kuipers was born in Zimbabwe and educated at Falcon College. He attended the University of Pietermaritzburg, reading for a Bachelor of Commerce Degree. After some overseas travel, he went on to do Honours in Accounting, and articles with KPMG. He passed the ICAZ Board Exams on his first attempt. Rob, then worked as the Finance Manager for a large agro-business, Butler Farms. He then joined Pioneer Transport. As the Finance Director he took the Company through the reverse listing process from Pioneer Transport (Private) Limited into the ZSE listed Clan Holdings Limited. He then left to run his own companies in the Southern African Region. Rob returned to Zimbabwe in 2010 and joined Swift Transport as the Managing Director. He was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2014 and Chief Executive Officer in November 2015.

Gary Smith was born in Zimbabwe and was educated at Prince Edward School where he was Head Boy in 1986. He then joined Coopers & Lybrand where he served his articles, completing his B.Compt (Hons) degree through UNISA in 1991. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1992 finishing in the top 5 of his year. After a brief stint with tobacco company Transtobac, Gary established his own accountancy business which he ran successfully for 7 years. In 2001 he moved to the United Kingdom and held roles at Deutsche Bank, University of Surrey and Foxhills Club & Resort before moving back to Africa in 2008. Gary then spent four years managing a large transport and logistics group of companies in Beira, Mozambique gaining valuable experience in this sector. He joined the Group on 2nd of January 2013 as the Group Finance Director. He was appointed Chief Executive Officer in June 2014 a position he held until his retirement in October 2015. He is a citizen of and resides in Zimbabwe.

Chris Amira was born in Zimbabwe, attended Prince Edward School and obtained an Honours degree in Agriculture from the University of Zimbabwe. He has had over 30 years’ experience with leading business in Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Mozambique. Currently, Chris is self-employed and sits on a number of Company boards within Zimbawe and the region. He is a citizen of and resident of Zimbabwe.

Belmont has over twenty years of banking and financial services sector experience fifteen of which have been held in an executive capacity. He holds a Masters of Science and a Bachelor of Science Honours degree in Economics from the University of Zimbabwe. He also holds various qualifications in Leadership, Strategy, Corporate Governance, Treasury, Trade and Structured Finance. Belmont also sits on the boards of various listed and non-listed entities in Zimbabwe. He also serves on the Advisory board of a world renowned university based in India.

Thomas served his articles at Price Waterhouse Coopers Chartered Accountants (Zimbabwe) working in the Bulawayo, Harare and London offices. Thomas was admitted into PWC partnership in July 1972 and soon became Partner in charge of the Bulawayo and Botswana offices. In 1985, he transferred to the Harare office as senior Partner of PWC Central Africa and was responsible for the firm’s activities in Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and Mozambique. He retired in June 1995. He is now self employed and sits on a number of public and private company boards.

Clever Matigimu has 21 years business experience most of which was gained in the short term insurance industry at various levels and was previously Group Managing Director of SFG Holdings and is a co-founder of SFG Group. He is currently the CEO of the Beemarch Group of Companies, incorporating Beemarch Investments (Private) Limited, Beemarch Properties (Private) Limited and Beemarch Geo Scientific Services (Private) Limited. Clever is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Secretaries, and has an MBA. He is a council member of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries.

Sarah is a Zimbabwean citizen who studied culinary arts, marketing and project management in Cape Town. She then joined Scania Southern Africa and worked in all the departments covering production, marketing, sales and accounting thus amassed greater knowledge of transport and logistics services. Sarah is a successful restaurant owner in Harare with a firm foundation in the transport industry.