Divine Ndhlukula

Divine Ndhlukula is a Zimbabwean businesswoman, who has gained Africa-wide recognition for her entrepreneurial skills, having built an over 4,000 strong employee base from the humble beginning of her garage.

Born Divine Simbi on 5 February 1960 in rural Gutu to Mary and Piniel Simbi. She grew up in Gutu, having attended a number of schools, namely, Zvinavashe School, Machingambi School, Bondolfi Mission, St. Domincs Secondary School, Makumbe Mission. She was married to Stanely Ndhlukula (late) and has one son - David Simbi and two grandchildren.She studied for an Executive Masters in Business Administration (MBA) at Midlands State University and she holds another MBA from Women’s University in Africa which was conferred in recognition of her business leadership and gender equality initiatives, among other qualifications.

She founded a security company Securico from humble beginnings in Zimbabwe in 1998 In an interview she said that the idea to form Securico was conceived out of the need to earn a livelihood but critically to revolutionarise the male dominated security industry. Speaking to a Zimbabwean newspaper she said,

I thought there was a gap in the industry. Companies that were there were not living up to the needs of the clients. The industry was renowned for wild cat strikes and guards generally were perceived as the lowly-paid in any sector. I wanted to change the perceptions and create a niche in which people could carve out a career and I knew I needed to go in with a different approach and that approach was going to make the difference , the people had to be key or central feature of the vision.

Securico is the first Zimbabwean manned security company to be certified to the internationally acclaimed ISO9001:2008 Quality Management System.

• Empretec Entrepreneur of the Year 2001 and Empretec Entrepreneur of Decade (Services Sector) 2002;
• Manager of the year 2005 for Zim Institute of Management
• Celebrate a Sister Business award 2006
• Institute of Directors Zimbabwe Director of the Year (SMEs) 2008
• Institute of Directors Overral Director of Year(Run Up) 2009
• Zimbabwe Women Filmmakers/UNifem Business Award 2010.

Her business has also won several awards which include;

• National Quality Awards Company of the Year 2011
• Zimbabwe’s 7th Best Employers 2010 and 7th Best Employer again for 2011
• Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship 2011 Grand Prize run by Legatum and Omidyar.