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Tendai Rupapa and Thupeyo Muleya in BEITBRIDGE
AN ailing 80-year-old Beitbridge widow on Tuesday could not believe her luck when First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa paid her a surprise visit during which she cleaned her entire house, swept the compound, prepared her sumptuous meals, did her laundry and offered her a shoulder to lean on.
This came as the First Lady forges ahead with her drive to sow the seeds of love and inculcate in people, a sense of responsibility over the elderly.
To Gogo Selina Muthavhatsindi, it was an honour to be visited by the mother of the nation and sharing a meal with her while sitting under the veranda of her thatched hut.
People in the twilight of their lives often endure loneliness and largely have no one to fend for them and attend to their daily needs.
However, the First Lady is leading by example through caring for the elderly, saying it is critical to ensure they are properly looked after and urged communities and churches to allocate themselves time to help with household chores.
Dr Mnangagwa decried social challenges triggered by urbanisation and the collapse of the extended family unit and moral decay.
Amai Mnangagwa was warmly welcomed by the jovial gogo Muthavhatsindi who lives with her grandchildren left by her late children.
She had six children, but sadly five have since died.
The elderly lady has sore feet, eyesight challenges and is hypertensive.
In line with the traditional norms and values, Dr Mnangagwa sought permission to assist the elderly woman.
“Pamusoroi mbuya, we have come to visit you and your grandchildren. We want to spend time with you discussing various social issues and sharing a meal. Allow me to perform household chores for you,” the First Lady said. In response, Gogo Muthavhatsindi yielded to the request.
“I am happy my daughter, feel free to do as you please. What you have done is so wonderful uye Mwari vekudenga vafarawo nazvo. I have sore legs, eyesight challenges and hypertension. I am not supposed to stay in a dusty environment, but because of sore legs and an aching back, I was living in dirty yet this affected my health. Thank you for remembering me,” she said.
Working with women from various denominations, the community, Beitbridge West MP Cde Ruth Mavhungu-Maboyi, who is the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage, and Beitbridge Senator, Cde Tambudzai Mohadi, the First Lady left Gogo Muthavhatsindi’s homestead sparkling clean.
After washing her blankets, the First Lady gave her new 2-in-1 blankets, food hampers, toiletries before heading to other homesteads.
Minister of State for Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs and Devolution Abednico Ncube and Cde Albert Nguluve, the MP for Beitbridge East, also led other teams in gardening activities and cleaning several homesteads in support of the First Lady’s programme.
“I am grateful to the First Lady for her hard work and passion to ensure we live a decent life and in harmony. I have lived 73 years and this has never happened to me even this community that is interacting with the First Lady. She performed all household chores for us,” said Mr Mthupo Moyo.
He lives with his wife who is mentally challenged and their three children.
His homestead was cleaned, clothes washed and the yard cleared of heaps of garbage.
“It is pleasing to note that we are being taught love and care. I wish this will continue and we should teach our children to have such love,” said Mr Moyo.
After the cleaning, Dr Mnangagwa later addressed the community at Malala School where she reinforced the theme of love and the need for people to show respect to the elderly at all times.
“Today I started out by helping the elderly with a quest to teach our children to grow up knowledgeable. We saw grandfathers and grandmothers in dire need of help. I thank all the women I worked with, including those from various churches. I have come with a lesson of love and counselling for our children who must learn from us.
“The elderly were grateful. This should not end here, but carry this forward alongside your daughters-in-law. We daughters-in-law usually sow the seeds of division in families we are married into yet we should be uniting people. Let us help the elderly at all times,” she said to wild applause.
So touched were members of the community that they promised to continue cleaning for the elderly and attending to their daily needs.
Mrs Chipo Ngwenya said she felt challenged to assist the elderly in her community and had learnt something valuable from the First Lady’s gesture.
“I thank our mother, the First Lady, who has come here to Malala were she is showing us good morals. As worshippers, she has taught us to respect elders and not just our parents. She has taught us an important thing which we shall practice from now on following in her footsteps going about assisting the elderly in the community by sweeping, cleaning their homes and fetching water for them. Most of them cannot do anything on their own so we need to assist them,” she said.
A youthful villager from Jaka, Miss Nomatter Moyo, said she had been humbled to see the First Lady doing domestic chores for the elderly, adding that she had learned to love and care for the vulnerable members of the community.
Miss Moyo said she will teach fellow villagers the importance of giving and regularly checking on each other.
“I have learnt a lot today from our First Lady, you will note that people tend to ignore the vulnerable members of the community. However, we have been shown the way and we will continue on that road,” she said.
Mr Mapalala Moyo (49) in Malala Village whose house was also visited by the Minister of State who helped with gardening and laundry was also grateful.
Mr Moyo cares for his elderly mother who is deaf and seven other people.
“We appreciate this gesture from our leaders. It enhances social coherence and a culture of living in harmony and love,” he said. “Today our community has been united in love and we had some women doing laundry while the First Lady and her team cleaned up other homesteads. We are going to continue with this way of life.”
Minister Ncube said the programmes being led by Dr Mnangagwa had a great impact on influencing how people should live in harmony with each other.
He said people should emulate her love and work and continue taking care of each other.
He said it was encouraging to have a mother like Dr Mnangagwa who was selfless and had people at heart.
“We are happy to see the First Lady taking a lead in creating support systems for the orphans, the elderly, and other vulnerable members in our communities,” he said.
“This is something we should take a leaf from and continue doing good to each other in our various communities. Reaching out to the elderly is key in embracing cultural diversity, promoting love and unity amongst communities. I urge people to emulate the First Lady’s works and bear in mind that we all have a role to play in building our communities.”
Deputy Minister Maboyi said she felt compelled to assist the elderly.
“The First Lady has invited all women here to come and witness that which she is doing teaching us that as we live with the elderly, we shall also age and we need to visit them regularly doing their dishes and laundry,” she said.
“We are grateful that our mother teaches us a lot of things but due to urbanisation, some of us forget where we came from and have forgotten our elderly at the rural home. We shall take this programme and move with it assisting one another and teach our children so that we follow what Amai has done. Every woman is needed here and this is not about politics but its about love for one another.”
Cde Nguluve echoed similar sentiments.
“I am grateful for our mother’s visit here. Our mother taught us that location does not matter. If a place has an elderly person we need to look after them as our mothers,” he said. “She taught us not to forget our roots.
“No one ever thought that she would come to this remote area but she has come showing that we need to look after our elderly. We have also learnt that we need to look after our parents.
“Amai’s programmes have nothing to do with politics. She embraces everyone. In my life I had never seen a First Lady coming to an area like this one. She swept, washed, cleaned and cooked for the people showing love but to us this is a good lesson.”
Senator Mohadi expressed her gratitude to the First Lady for her life-changing initiatives.
“I want to thank the First Lady for the work that she is doing throughout the country,” she said. “Today she left a big lesson to all of us here in Beitbridge. As legislators, we have been left with a challenge to teach our communities on the importance of looking after the elderly.
“In terms of caring for our elderly, there is a gap somewhere that was not filled which Amai came to fill with love and unity. Caring of the elderly is a programme that has to go forward and we promise Amai that we will never forget the elderly in our communities.”
Since time immemorial, the First Lady has been actively involved in ensuring the elderly are catered for and has personally led various efforts to ensure they live in clean environments and are well catered for.
Online Reporter