Sharmin Esmail brings charm and style to the top post of town manager
For the first time the unique position of town manager in Fumba Town is filled with a woman - adding that subtle, but all-important difference of a female touch
The cats Mia and Sheba, both foundlings, purr when Sharmin Esmail enters her cosy home in Fumba Town. And so, figuratively speaking, do visitors when coming to her office. The 48-year-old town manager is one of those rare people in whose presence you automatically feel calmer, more relaxed and, most of all, completely taken care of. Seems light the right set of qualities for her unique position of managing an entire town!
Part administrator, part landlord, part concierge, part stylist and – last but not least – a clever networker with sufficient technical and organisational knowledge: Sharmin’s position encompasses all of these job descriptions. But when I ask her how she personally would describe her mission in Fumba Town in a few words, she lets it sound much more simple than it certainly is: “I just want everything to be inviting”, she says and give me a heart-warming smile.
In the unique seaside town of Fumba, with its growing population and large sectors of the exquisite eco development still under planning and construction, her workload is sheer infinite: With a team of ten, the town manager looks after the maintenance of public infrastructure and utilities from high-speed internet to safe water. She checks on landscaping, oversees and co-organises fun events such as the monthly open-air market and movie nights. Also, the graduate in human development and child psychology makes sure child safety is adhered to at all times and was the one who installed the first traffic signs in the new estate. Another of her functions is to organise the rentals of houses and apartments on behalf of their owners. Towards this end, Esmail has started a small design & décor company named “Iman” to personally style and furnish properties. This has proven an instant success with homeowners who do not live in Zanzibar and need somebody professional to look after their property.
“I love green and blue colours, the colours of the ocean”, Sharmin says, while showing me around her own, beautifully decorated two-bedroom-house in Fumba. Here she moved in when she took over the job less than a year ago, the whole house radiating warmth and a woman’s touch. A mother of two and career woman at the same time, Sharmin knows the value of strict organisation. “If it’s tidy, it’s less work”, she says. She lived in Washington DC, New York and Florida for nine years where she also engaged in real estate. In Dar es Salaam, where she was born and raised, she is best known for her maid and cleaning service “Spiknspan”. “When I started it everybody laughed at me”, she recalls – now the thriving service employs 800 cleaners who tend to private homes, airlines, even the state house and has franchises in the USA.
Comparing her once hectic life in America with the tranquillity of Fumba, Esmail says: “I don’t miss the US at all. In Washington, I had to drive to a park, here I live in one!” To see the joy and excitement of homeowners when handing over a new property – another one of her responsibilities – “is a big reward”, she says, adding: “I feel so passionate about my job, it almost does not feel like one.” The cats seem to agree, intensifying their purr while they seem to listen to our conversation.
