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Tendai Rupapa-Senior Reporter
BOTSWANA First Lady Mrs Neo Masisi yesterday showered her Zimbabwean counterpart Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa with praises for promoting traditional dishes and equipping women with knowledge of their rights, especially on inheritance issues which usually tear families apart following the death of the breadwinner.
This comes amid reports of widespread abuse of widows and orphans by relatives of their deceased husbands who throw them out of their homes and dispose of their property for selfish gain.
Since 2018, Dr Mnangagwa has been conducting awareness programmes where people, mainly widows, are equipped with knowledge by experts on property rights and inheritance laws.
To facilitate robust awareness, the First Lady roped in a team of experts from the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs, Master of the High Court, the Law Society of Zimbabwe (LSZ) and Council of Estate Administrators, among others.
She conceived the programme after realising that widows, widowers and orphans were losing property after their spouses and parents die.
Mrs Masisi is in the country for the official opening of the Zimbabwe Agricultural Show by her husband President Mokgweetsi Masisi.
The two First Ladies started by touring the Home Industries Hall and visited Botswana’s stand where Mrs Boipelo Baahanyana from Botswana Investment and Trade Centre took the delegation through their traditional products that included crushed sunflower cake, smoked morula, chilli and ginger jam, Morula, banana and coconut jam, beetroot, onion and baobab jam among many other products.
Mrs Baahanyana told the First Ladies that they were into promoting export development, adding that they had markets in many countries, including Europe.
From there, they proceeded to Rajiv Gandhi Hall where they visited Villa Gianni Boutique Hotel’s stand.
Villa Gianni Boutique Hotel is run by hardworking youths who are in tourism.
They recently won an award for best bed and breakfast hotel in Harare from the Zimbabwe Tourism Association (ZTA).
Mrs Masisi commended the owners of the hotel for promoting tourism and hospitality in the country.
She said youth who portray such hard work needed encouragement and support.
The tour took the First Ladies to Nelson Mandela Hall housing various ministries, including the Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development where women who are into beading, weaving, knitting and sewing were displaying their products.
Ms Chipo Chiruka from Goromonzi, who was displaying her items, said she was dreaming big following encouragement by the First Lady, Dr Mnangagwa for women to use their hands and be economically empowered.
She narrated to the visiting Botswana First Lady how Dr Mnangagwa was empowering women across the length and breadth of the country.
She said with Amai Mnangagwa’s initiatives and teachings, they were now generating income and being able to look after their families and sending their children to school.
She said as women they were following her teachings closely which are beneficial to the whole nation.
They also visited a stand where the national dress was being promoted where Mrs Masisi was told the material came to be through Amai Mnangagwa’s efforts and this saw Zimbabwe having an identity through dressing.
Under the Ministry of Women Affairs, there was also a stand on Gender Based Violence (GBV) awareness where Mrs Priscilla Gwatura said Dr Mnangagwa’s national gender based violence Call Centre 575 in her office was helping victims and survivors a lot.
Through the First Lady’s male engagement programme, Mrs Gwatura said men were now opening up on Gender-based violence and reporting cases as victims.
She said that they were presenting for counselling after having gained knowledge and courage from the First Lady’s teachings through male engagement and Nharirire yeMusha programmes.
Before these programmes, Mrs Gwatura said men were bottling up and ended up committing suicide without opening up about abuse.
The First Ladies also toured a stand where women displayed dried traditional foods that include sorghum meal, millet meal, cabbage, nyevhe, roasted grain, traditional herbs and different types of traditional tea.
Mrs Masisi showed keen interest in traditional foods, including sorghum meal which she said she wanted to take back home.
Mrs Angela Mloyi from Mashonaland East who came second during the second edition of the First Lady’s traditional meal cookout competition in Victoria Falls also had a table displaying mouth-watering traditional dishes she prepared.
She said the cooking competition unleashed her hidden talent and urged the nation to embrace the consumption of traditional dishes.
She took the First Ladies through the dishes and their health benefits.
Mrs Masisi concurred that traditional foods were highly nutritious and had medicinal properties.
She said she had a lot to learn from Amai Mnangagwa.
“Traditional foods are affordable; the average person can afford them. Secondly, there is minimal use of pesticides and herbicides in traditional foods, they are pretty much organic and that’s what we want. And they are nutritious. I love the way traditional food was prepared last night.
“I am happy that Mama Mnangagwa is promoting the consumption of traditional dishes. Certainly there is a lot to learn from her,” she said while referring to Dr Mnangagwa.
The two First Ladies later visited the stand of the Master of High Court where people, mostly widows were stampeding to see the Master of High Court with grievances while others came to give testimonies of how they were helped after attending Amai’s inheritance programmes where they were equipped with knowledge of steps to take on inheritance.
On seeing the First Lady and her entourage, the women leapt with joy and ululated, thanking her for her countrywide inheritance programme which they said was helping them from greedy relatives.
The First Lady held an interactive session with the widows asking if they were being assisted in resolving the many challenges they face.
“Are you being assisted at the Master of the High Court and do you know where to go? The First Lady of Botswana now wants to know that you now know where to go when you have these issues, are your issues being solved vana mai? Do you think the countrywide inheritance awareness programmes I am spearheading are helpful to you and the rest of the country?” she probed.
The First Ladies fought back tears hearing sad tales that were being narrated by some widows at the stand.
One widow shared a miserable story saying; “My husband died in 2014 and his family asked me to go and live in the rural areas since the person I had come for had died. Since then, I have had no rest. My husband had two children from his previous marriage with a woman who passed away. When I came, these children were young and I took care of them. Now they are working and want to chase me from the home because the house bears their late mother’s name. Last month they threatened to kill me for refusing to vacate the house. I have had no rest since 2014 and badly need help,” she said with tears trickling down her cheeks.
The Master of the High Court, Mr Eldard Mutasa, said his office would accord the widow’s case the attention that it deserves.
“The matter is receiving attention in our offices. When she came she acknowledged that she had learnt about the operations of the office through Amai’s programmes and we looked at the issues that she had. These are common because of the patriarchal nature of our society. The belief that I learnt surrounding her circumstances is that she cannot inherit a house because she may remarry and at the end of the day that house may benefit another man. But we are saying she should stay at that property in peace as the surviving spouse. She can coexist with children born from the previous marriage. We are going to call them to our office and resolve this dispute now that it has been brought to the attention of amai in our presence. Mhamha we assure you that there is going to be action,” Mr Mutasa said
One widow from Warren Park, Harare, commended Dr Mnangagwa for her interventions.
“When Amai came to Warren Park with her programme, listening to what we were going through after losing our loved ones, she brought experts who taught us and we embraced the teachings and followed them and we were helped. Because deaths are endless, we are teaching those who do not know through what we were taught during the inheritance programme. I received a lot of help from the Master’s office after losing my loved one,” she said with pride.
Another lady said the teachings on inheritance by the First Lady and her team had benefited the girl child who were losing out due to the patriarchal society which gave almost all resources to male siblings.
“As girls we had challenges as relatives would chase us following the death of our parents forcing us to get married and they would give everything to our brothers at our expense. I advise the whole nation that girls must not be threatened when orphaned. Through the programme, we now have knowledge,” she said.
Mrs Masisi described the First Lady’s inheritance programme as wonderful and beneficial.
“This is an excellent programme and we are very lucky to have Mama Mnangagwa rollout this programme,” she said. “As women I believe we need the most support. We are a wife, we are a sister, we are a mother, we are a sister-in law and we carry the nation.
“Where I come from we say a woman is the one who carries the whole nation. I don’t know what you call this cloth that you wrap the child in, but we say a woman is that cloth. But on the other hand a woman is the one that gets the most beatings and they come in many forms. There is gender-based violence, there is the inheritance and the disadvantaged.
“I am very excited about this programme mhamha and I am hoping that one day you will come with a few of these women and you will narrate these stories to the women of Botswana where you are saying before you became aware of this programme you were here feeling like a little somebody now you are able to walk strong.”
The First Ladies were accompanied by Defence and War Veterans Affairs Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri and Deputy Minister of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Barbara Rwodzi.
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