Online Reporter
Raymond Jaravaza, Online Reporter
TWO Cabinet Ministers on Friday visited one of the oldest people in the country, 122-year-old Mr Anuloisa Banda, at his homestead in Ntunungwe village, Ward 17 in Bulilima, Matabeleland South Province.
Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, Edgar Moyo and Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu took time off their busy schedules to visit the Banda family and meet the centenarian.
The elderly man was presented with a new bed, two wheelchairs and groceries.
Mr Banda was born in 1903 in Tukuyu village, on the border between Malawi and Tannzania.
Aged 18 years old, Mr Banda left for Tanzania looking for work and two years later decided to trek down south to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where he spent his entire working life at different mines in Mhangura, Shamva and Shabanie among others
He met his late wife Xotshiwe Maphosa in Filabusi before they moved to Bulillima District in the 1950s.
The couple had five children, three of whom are late. Mr Banda lives with his daughter-in-law Mrs Judith Maphosa, grandchildren and great grandchildren.
The centenarian caught the attention of the country two weeks ago when Zimpapers’ publication B-Metro carried an article detailing how the family had been struggling to get funeral cover for him.
Four funeral policy providers declined to register him, citing his advanced age as a business risk.
Harare-based company Zororo/Phumulani has since pledged to give him free funeral cover.
The Minister of Matabeleland South for Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Albert Nguluvhe, in absentia, pledged to drill a borehole at the Banda homestead.
