HUMHR Career Insights

Most people cross a border chasing opportunity. Jonathan Thompson crossed one to build it.
He grew up poor in America, selling door to door at eleven to pay his own way. He trained as a minister, married a Zimbabwean, and moved to Chipinge in 1999 to pastor a church and work with an orphanage. He stayed through the land invasions and the hyperinflation. Then in his forties, in a city he had only just moved to, he wrote real estate exams by hand and started his career over.
Today he runs Thompson Developments and is Executive Director and part owner of Chas Everitt Zimbabwe. His team helped deliver Hopeville and King City, a development roughly ten times the size of the Bulawayo CBD. Weeks before this recording his company won the national Best Emerging Business award from the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce.
This is not a masterclass on property margins. It is a conversation about resilience, about what happens to your identity when you completely swap ecosystems, and about how you build a legacy when the ground beneath you keeps shifting.
IN THIS EPISODEThe moment he realised his business was profiting from Zimbabwe's decline, and what he did about itWhy he sat exams in his forties after twenty years of experienceHow to check an estate agent before you send a single dollar homeWhy he believes home ownership is what holds a community togetherPractical ways into property when you do not have capitalVictoria's Court, and the loss that reshaped how he sees the work
CHAPTERS0:00 The developments that took the money and never delivered4:24 Selling door to door at eleven9:01 How they protect diaspora money11:24 The hyperinflation years12:12 The conversation with his wife that changed the business12:34 Writing real estate exams by hand in his forties13:55 Hopeville, learning the trade on a job that barely paid14:14 King City, ten times the size of the Bulawayo CBD16:52 The one tip for the diaspora22:18 Why home ownership keeps people from leaving26:32 The career pivots, from the pulpit to property30:15 Winning the national Best Emerging Business award34:34 Victoria's Court, building in his daughter's memory41:29 Cyclone Idai, and the houses they built52:36 You have to put back into people1:00:49 Thompson Developments and Chas Everitt explained1:06:46 The partner who died, and why he built his own thing1:10:06 The dream, the baby giraffe, and choosing Zimbabwe1:14:22 How to actually start investing in property1:20:42 Fire round
Recorded in Bulawayo, the City of Kings, on the HUMHR Career Insights Across Borders Tour 2026. Watch the video version at https://youtu.be/odXT9bG2vA0
GUESTJonathan Thompson: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-thompson-24730a22b/
HOSTHUMHR Career Insights is hosted by Batje Chibafa, a certified career coach and HR consultant.https://humhr.org | https://linktr.ee/humhr | https://www.patreon.com/c/HUMHRCareer
Studio provided free of charge by Educate. Educate, funding the future.
DISCLAIMER: The content in this podcast and on this webpage is not intended to constitute or substitute for specialized professional advice, including legal, financial, medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard relevant professional advice based solely on the information presented in this podcast or channel. Furthermore, all opinions expressed by guests are their sole views and do not represent those of the channel or its host.
Nothing here is financial or investment advice. Figures reflect the speaker's own experience at the time of recording. Markets change. Consult a registered financial advisor and a registered estate agent before you invest, buy or transfer money. Recorded 21 July 2026. Copyright HUMHR 2026.

She started running in 2012 to lose weight. Her first 10km took over an hour. In April 2026 she crawled across the Two Oceans Marathon finish line. Two months later she became the first black woman to stand on the Comrades Marathon Up Run podium in the race's 105-year history.  Nobukhosi "Buhle" Tshuma grew up in Makokoba, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe. Orphaned young. She moved to Swaziland at 10 and to South Africa at 14. She turned professional in 2016 under coach Hendrick Ramaala. She is wife of 2023 Two Oceans champion Givemore Mudzinganyama, and she runs for Entsika Running Club in Tembisa.  In this episode Batje Chibafa sits down with Buhle to talk about: - How a girl from Makokoba became a Comrades podium finisher - What it means to cross borders and build a career from nothing - The Two Oceans moment the whole world saw, and what happened next - Faith, family, and finishing what you started - What she wants young Zimbabwean women to know  Recorded in Johannesburg as part of the HUMHR Career Insights Across Borders Tour 2026.  Listen on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and all major platforms. Watch on YouTube: @humhr3715 Follow HUMHR Career Insights: Instagram: @humhr2021 LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/humhr Website: humhr.org  #HUMHRCareerInsights #AcrossBordersTour2026 #NobukhlosiTshuma #Comrades2026 #ZimbabweProud #CareerInsights #WomenInSport

She wrote her first novel at 13. One handwritten copy,
passed around her class at Girls' College - and nobody ever lost it.
 
Fourteen years after self-publishing The Polygamist,
it became a Netflix series - number one in 16 countries
around the world.
 
In this episode of HUMHR Career Insights, Batje Chibafa
sits down with Sue Nyathi in Johannesburg - the first stop
on the Africa Across Borders Tour 2026.
 
 
They talked about:
- Writing by night while building a 20-year career in finance
- The rejection letters that almost ended everything
- Leaving corporate at 40 with no plan B
- A spiritual awakening during COVID
- The phone call in 2022 that became Netflix
- What it means to be a social anthropologist
- The 4 Ps: Perseverance, Passion, Persistence and Providence
 
CHAPTERS
00:00 Welcome | Johannesburg, South Africa
00:48 Netflix #1 in 16 countries
02:38 The Polygamist: written 2010, self-published 2012
03:43 The two-page rejection letter
07:53 The novel she wrote at 13 - one handwritten copy
11:14 Writing as a lens on society
16:24 Quitting finance at 40 - with no plan B
19:57 COVID, silence, and a spiritual awakening
23:35 Learning the business of writing
37:44 Discipline over inspiration: 8am to 3pm, every day
40:17 The Polygamist's impact: book clubs, healing, controversy
49:39 The Netflix adaptation
61:12 Kenya: when the government took notice
63:09 French translation rights
65:33 What would 13-year-old Sue say?
65:51 Fire round
 
GUEST: Sue Nyathi | Author | The Polygamist, The Gold
Diggers, A Family Affair, An Angel's Demise
 
HOST: Batje Chibafa | Certified Career Coach | Founder, HUMHR
 
Subscribe: YouTube @humhr3715
Instagram: @humhr2021
Website: humhr.org
Linktree: linktr.ee/humhr

For the Season 4 finale, Batje Chibafa sits down with a guest unlike any she has had before. No flight to catch, no green room. Her guest is Claude, Anthropic's AI.
They talk about whether AI is coming for your job, what it means for humanitarian careers, why entrepreneurship is not the answer for everyone, the recruiter double standard, and the question that stopped the whole conversation: Is AI even made for Africa?
Claude also reflects on Season 4, shares its favourite episode, and answers the question Batje saved until last: how much water did this conversation cost the world?
HUMHR Career Insights helps purpose-driven professionals navigate career transitions, build on their strengths, and find work that matters. Globally.
 
If this episode moved you, three things help us grow. Subscribe. Rate. Share with one person who needs to hear this.
 
CONNECT WITH HUMHR
Watch and subscribe on YouTube: youtube.com/@humhr3715
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Book a conversation: humhr.org
 
Subscribe to HUMHR Career Insights and stay inspired.

I posted a reel about 172 job applications and 3 responses. The comments did not say "wow." They said "me too." Person after person. Different country. Different industry. Same silence.
When that many people recognise themselves in one experience, you are not looking at a bad day. You are looking at a broken system.
In this Batje's Take, I dig into the trust that has broken down between those who are hiring and those who are being hired — and what it will actually take to fix it.
What I cover:
Why the ATS is not an efficiency tool. It is a silence machine.
Is AI interviewing innovation, or is it the same problem at a higher speed?
The difference between using AI to prepare for an interview and using AI during one. One is smart. One is misrepresentation.
What the Readiness Room at HUMHR is built on.
What a real recruitment overhaul looks like.
If you have been screened out, ghosted, or went through a full process and heard nothing — this one is for you. And if you work in HR or talent acquisition — this one is especially for you.
Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.Visit humhr.org to book a conversation or join the Readiness Room.

Be a Pioneer. Be a weed. Weeds survive where other plants cannot. Dandelions are food. Being a weed is not a consolation — it is a strategy.
In Part 2, Elizabeth Mhangami goes deeper on what it really means to build a career on your own terms: entrepreneurship as a mindset, the donor consulting model that works without a pocket of donors, why return-to-office mandates are a career equity issue, and the self-worth conversation that changed everything.
What we cover in Part 2:
Why letting the jobs go might be the best career move you ever make
What Elizabeth actually does as a donor consultant — it is not a pocket full of donors
The weed metaphor that will change how you think about your career
Why return-to-office is a career equity issue, not just a preference
"If you need to see me to consider me for a promotion, there is a misalignment there already"
No one treats you worse than you treat yourself — the inner critic work
The coaching turning point: cortisol, inflammation, and finally trusting what you were seeing
Listen on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Follow HUMHR on Instagram: @humhr2021 | humhr.org
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

She sent 172 job applications. Got 3 responses. Not because she wasn't qualified — but because the AI screening systems never read her CV.
 
In this episode, Elizabeth Mhangami (Principal Consultant, NDISU) joins Batje Chibafa in studio to talk about what is really happening in hiring — the ATS arms race, who AI was designed for, and whether the tools shaping the job market were ever built for the Global South.
 
What we cover in Part 1:
Why personalising AI tools quietly takes credit away from your own work
The 172-application job search story that predicted today's hiring landscape
ATS, AI, and the arms race: first we used AI to beat ATS — now we need AI to beat AI
Why grant funding and hiring share the same broken trust problem
How Elizabeth uses ChatGPT as a strategy consultant, not a shortcut
Data centres, Zimbabwe's lithium, and the real ethics of technology
Hazel's question from South Africa: does any of this AI actually work for the Global South?
Follow HUMHR on Instagram: @humhr2021 | humhr.org

What keeps you grounded when the title disappears?
In this deeply reflective episode of Batje’s Take, Batje Chibafa unpacks one of the most powerful themes from her conversation with humanitarian leader Rudo Kayombo, faith as an operating system, not a performance.
From leading humanitarian work across 18 countries to navigating life after executive leadership, Rudo’s story explores what happens when identity is no longer tied to position, status, or a paycheck.
Batje reflects on:
Why leadership does not require pretending to know everything
The danger of building careers on image instead of rootedness
What career transitions reveal about identity
Why saying “I don’t know” can actually strengthen leadership
The importance of succession planning and building leaders beneath you
How faith, purpose, and being grounded can shape long-term career decisions
This episode is especially relevant for professionals navigating transition, leadership pressure, uncertainty, burnout, or reinvention.
If you are currently in a season of change, this conversation may give language to what you are feeling and remind you that your worth is bigger than your title.
🎙️ Listen to the full two-part conversation with Rudo Kayombo on HUMHR Career Insights.
📌 Connect with Batje Chibafa on Linkedin
📌 Follow HUMHR Career Insights for more conversations on careers, leadership, entrepreneurship, and purpose-driven work.
#CareerTransitions #Leadership #FaithAndWork #HumanitarianCareers #CareerCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #HUMHR #BatjesTake #PurposeDrivenLeadership #NGOCareers #WomenInLeadership #CareerGrowth #PersonalDevelopment

She left Africa Vice President at Habitat for Humanity and the most overwhelming feeling, she says, was relief.
This is Part 2 of Batje Chibafa's conversation with Rudo Kayombo. If you missed Part 1, start there. We walked through the twenty-five-year humanitarian career, the lawyer years, the saying-yes-in-tears moment, and the faith thread that pulled her from World Vision Zimbabwe to World Vision Uganda to ONE Campaign to Habitat for Humanity.
Part 2 is the building arc. The first week after she stopped being VP. The cousin's message that broke her open. Why she moved back to Harare and chose a cottage over a Prado. The Fahari Women's Fund. The mentee who paid her back fifty thousand shillings. Why she calls herself a dinosaur for ChatGPT. And the single piece of counsel she leaves for every senior leader sitting at the exit door.
If you are mid-pivot, this conversation is for you.
MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM PART 2"The most overwhelming feeling was relief.""Do not be comfortable being the one chief.""Do not be deceived. What a man sows, he will reap."
ABOUT THE GUESTRudo Kayombo is the Founder of Fahari Kubwinya Splendour. Find her on LinkedIn: Rudo Kayombo | LinkedIn
WATCH THE FULL VIDEO ON YOUTUBE[https://youtube.com/@humhr3715?si=dSLW89_3J30tIDiY]
🔗 CONNECT & SUPPORT
🎙️ Patreon:   / humhrcareer  
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🌍 Linktree: https://linktr.ee/humhr
💼 Batje on LinkedIn:   / batjechibafa  
🏢 HUMHR LinkedIn:   / humhr  
If this episode resonated, three things help us grow. Subscribe. Rate. Share with one person sitting at a transition.
Until next Tuesday. Stay inspired.

Leadership, humanitarian strategy, and career reinvention - Rudo Kayombo spent 25 years building other people’s missions before one morning in October she signed her own name.
In this two-part conversation with Batje Chibafa, Part 1 traces Rudo’s formation arc: the lawyer years, UNHCR, The Musasa Project, saying yes to roles she felt unqualified for, and leading major NGO operations across Africa. Rudo grew World Vision Zimbabwe from 300 to 1,300 staff, served as National Director at World Vision Uganda, was Executive Director Africa at ONE Campaign, led Southern Africa through World Vision’s first Category 3 disaster response, and served as COO at Food for the Hungry across 18 countries. Six months ago she left her role as Africa Vice President at Habitat for Humanity to found Fahari Kubwinya Splendour, a purpose-driven brand and shop in Harare.
What you’ll hear in Part 1 • How faith and calling shaped a leadership journey across NGOs and international aid• Why she keeps saying “send me people” and how she builds teams under pressure• The moment she realized she needed to learn on the job - and why that was the right move• Practical advice she would give her 30-year-old self about risk, mentorship, and purpose
Memorable quotes from Part 1 “I was made by God.”“Sometimes when we hold on to something, God will wrestle it out of our hands.”“I came to the job knowing I did not know. And I needed to learn.”
About the guest Rudo Kayombo is Founder of Fahari Kubwinya Splendour and a seasoned NGO executive with leadership roles at World Vision, ONE Campaign, Food for the Hungry, and Habitat for Humanity. Find her on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/rudo-kayombo-7a7975159
Watch the full video on YouTube: youtube.com/@humhrcareerinsightsJoin us on Patreon for early access and bonus content: patreon.com/c/HUMHRCareerAll links and resources: linktr.ee/humhr
Release note Part 2 publishes Tuesday, May 19. Subscribe, rate, and share with someone navigating a career transition.