Myles Kupara Chanakira
Myles Kupara Chanakira owned and operated Modern Express Motorways, Zimbabwe’s first indigenous owned bus company before Indepedence. A very wealthy businessman, Chanakira is also believed to be the first black Zimbabwean to drive a brand new Mercedes Benz luxury saloon motor vehicle.
Background
He had two wives and more than 24 children. Chanakira had more than 100 grandchildren. He also built several mansions especially at his rural homestead, Chanakira Village in Seke Communal lands about 25km outside Harare.
Business Career
The businessman built the biggest shopping centre at Gazaland Shopping Centre in Highfield and owned more than 75 percent of all the shops at Machipisa Shopping Centre also in Highfield.
Chanakira had more than 50 buses burnt by freedom fighters during the war of liberation after they accused him of sponsoring and supporting Bishop Abel Muzorewa, Prime Minister of the short-lived Zimbabwe/Rhodesia government.[1]
Death
Chanakira had been unwell for some time before his death and succumbed to heart complications in 2010.
