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George Maponga in CHIVI
In the Chivi rural heartland, about 20km south of the sprawling Chivi Growth Point, lies undulated plains and a cacophony of small hills and hillocks that were generous enough to give the world Shokoni communal lands.
Shokoni, just like most rural enclaves in remote parts of the Zimbabwean countryside, for years lived on the periphery of modernity as its remoteness conspired to make sure the area was devoid of most basic services needed to sustain a modest life for communities domiciled there.
Services such as clinics, business centres and gas stations were alien to Shokoni, a familiar story for most rural areas in remote parts of Zimbabwe. The advent of independence in 1980 saw a veneer of modernity creeping into the Zimbabwean countryside and rural areas but most of them largely remained in the shadow of development owing to an acute shortage of resources.
Among the essential services that skipped most rural areas around Zimbabwe were health centres or clinics where communities could seek recourse for both common and complicated ailments.
Shokoni was also in this predicament with communities there being forced to travel 20km away to Chivi District Hospital, to access health services.
A man who left Shokoni in 1969 as a toddler, recently returned ”home” brandishing a universal passport for access to free health, bringing relief, cheers and smiles on the faces of villagers in this remote and isolated rural area.
Businessman and Zanu PF member Cde Jimayi Muduvuri, who was born there in 1967, made a triumphant return to his ancestral home 55 years after initially leaving with his family for pastures anew in Nembudziya Gokwe in 1969.
However, for Cde Muduvuri it is President Mnangagwa’s ”heart of gold” that moulded him into the philanthropist and reputable businessman he is today.
Some of the wards at the ED Mnangagwa Clinic in Shokoni communal lands in Chivi
This was after the Head of State and Government showed him true love that saved his accident-injured legs from being amputated.
Cde Muduvuri owes his life and status to President Mnangagwa, who financially helped him to undergo surgery in South Africa in 2006. This was long before assuming the country’s Presidency.
”I was injured at Gokwe Centre in 1989 after a 20-tonne truck that I was driving was involved in an accident and both my legs sustained extensive injuries such that I ended up spending 2 years at Gweru Provincial Hospital seeking medical attention,” he recalls.
”From the time I was injured up to around 2006, I was in and out of hospital trying to seek treatment until God changed my life through President Mnangagwa who was a minister when he first extended the hand of love to me.”
Cde Muduvuri said he was troubled by his injured legs that one day in 2006, he decided to approach a top local bank’s offices in Harare to seek a loan to finance his treatment in South Africa.
”While I was in the car outside the banking hall, Mai Muchinguri(Minister of Defence Cde Oppah) saw me and I suspect she is the one who told President Mnangagwa, who was a minister by then, that she had seen me and the bad condition that I was in. On the same day, I received a call from the President instructing me to immediately leave where I was and when I asked him( President Mnangagwa) what I was supposed to do after leaving, he just cut off the phone without saying a word.”
To Cde Muduvuri’s shock and surprise, he received another call from some people he could not name who brought him hard cash and told him they had been sent by President Mnangagwa to give him so that he could pay for his medical expenses in South Africa.
”It was lots of cash that I was given that day and to my utter surprise, two days after receiving the money, something I never expected happened. While I was at my home in Kadoma contemplating when I was to travel to SA, for treatment as facilitated by the President, I was told that there were visitors outside the house. I peeped and saw President Mnangagwa and his wife (First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa) coming out of their car which had parked outside,’ ‘said Cde Muduvuri.
”The President and the First Lady came inside the house and enquired about my health and before they left, President Mnangagwa told me that he was giving me a day to go for treatment in South Africa. Indeed a day after their visit, I obliged.”
According to Cde Muduvuri, the gesture extended to him by the First couple to personally visit him at his house and check on him created lasting impressions for him. He realised that indeed the couple was driven by unconditional love.
”I am not even surprised that today the First Lady, Dr Amai Mnangagwa, is championing philanthropic work that has nationwide tentacles because she showed me love even before she was First Lady by visiting me at my Kadoma home just to check on me as I battled challenges with my injured legs.”
After he went to South Africa at the first couple’s bidding in 2006, Cde Muduvuri would later spend many months in and out of hospital, with his second date with destiny coming in 2018 when President Mnangagwa was now at the helm of the Second Republic.
”Some surgeons were attending to me at a South African hospital one day in 2018 when they suddenly told me that they could no longer continue with their work because my money had run out. I asked them why they were leaving me on my own after ripping open my legs if they knew my money was running low. I was hopeless and helpless as I lay infirmly and prostate in my hospital bed, not knowing what to do next. The surgeons left me in a terrible state,” recalls Cde Muduvuri.
”A relative who was looking after me then advised me to call President Mnangagwa and ask for help, and I asked how I could do so to a person who was now Head of State and had even assisted me before? I told him it was better when he first helped me in 2006 because he was a Cabinet minister, but now having assumed the Presidency, how could I call a person of such lofty stature and beg for assistance? My relative urged me on and I called at least two times and cut the calls before they went through but for the third time, I gathered enough courage and the phone call went through.”
”I told the President of my predicament in hospital and that surgeons had left me with ripped legs because I no longer had money for them to complete the required procedure and the President told me that he had heard about my problem. To my surprise a few minutes after talking to the President, I received a call from some people who asked my exact location and they came right away after our call.”
Cde Muduvuri recalls how the President’s emissaries arrived at the hospital with lots of money to pay for all his medical procedures, but he was already in no mood to stay there after the ill-treatment he had received at the hands of surgeons who had attended him.
”I told them (President’s emissaries) to clear my medical bill there and asked to be discharged and transferred to another hospital. I ended up at a Netcare Hospital, where I was eventually treated for several months. This is why I still have my legs today because I was assisted by the President, not once. I am indebted to him because of his unconditional love, I could have been amputated and my life could have taken a different trajectory, but President Mnangagwa assisted me during my time of need.”
Upon returning home Cde Muduvuri said, together with his wife, one day they went to the President with some money they had raised to settle part of the huge bill for the treatment.
”I took the little cash that I had managed to raise to the President to show gratitude as a person who had been assisted. I knew in my heart that it would take time to fully settle the amount, but I agreed with my wife that it was better to do something than just keep quiet because I didn’t have enough money. I was shocked further with what awaited us when we went to the President.
”The President’s first question when I produced the money was to show him where we had signed that the assistance he was giving me was a debt”.
“When I told him that we had not signed any agreement, he told me to leave and go back home. I went back home, but that gesture inspired me to help others, from that day on, just like the way I had been helped by the President.”
Cde Muduvuri said when he sat down with his wife after going back home, the couple decided to assist others.
”I started building Muduvuri Pan African Hospital in 2020 and finished it in 2022 when it was commissioned, and I saw it fit that President Mnangagwa himself be the one to commission it. The male ward at the hospital which is in Kadoma town, is called Sekuru Mafidhi Ward after President Mnangagwa’s father, while the female ward is called Mbuya Mhurai Ward after the President’s mother.”
He said he named the two wards at the Pan African Hospital after the President’s parents as a way of honouring them for giving birth to a leader blessed with unconditional love.
On 25 September this year, Cde Muduvuri retraced his footsteps to his birthplace in Shokoni, Chivi Central, to witness the commissioning of another project inspired by President Mnangagwa’s ”heart of gold”.
The Kadoma-based philanthropist aptly named the new baby, ”ED Mnangagwa Clinic” in honour of a freedom fighter, guerilla fighter, liberator, man of the people, visionary and champion of the downtrodden, among other attributes.
”I decided to name the clinic at Shokoni after President Mnangagwa again as a way of honouring the man for his selflessness and love that saw him sacrificing his life to liberate Zimbabwe at a young age. The President even missed hanging by a whisker for determinedly fighting to liberate Zimbabwe, he was jailed and lived to see Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980. He has continued to serve the people of Zimbabwe selflessly up to this day.”
The aged, the physically challenged, war veterans and collaborators, and pregnant mothers all get free treatment at ED Mnangagwa clinic in Shokoni. The new clinic is electrified, and also boasts a brand new ambulance donated by Cde Muduvuri.
Besides ED Mnangagwa Clinic in Chivi, Cde Muduvuri has also used personal resources to build 10 clinics in different parts of the country where the vulnerable get free treatment.
Among the clinics are Auxillia Mnangagwa Clinic in Nembudziya, Simon Muzenda Clinic at Gokwe Centre, Joshua Nkomo Clinic in Gwanda, Rekayi Tangwena Clinic in Nyanga, Herbert Chitepo Clinic in Mutare and Ndabaningi Sithole Clinic in Chipinge.
”These clinics are named after the country’s national heroes so that the history of how Zimbabwe came to be free is not forgotten especially by the young generation. This country came as a result of sacrifices by our forebears who pioneered and spearheaded the war to jettison colonial rule and some of the liberators are still alive and one of them is President Mnangagwa. We must celebrate and remember them, they are our heroes who delivered a new Zimbabwe where everyone is free.”
Cde Muduvuri’s father was a polygamist with six wives and 55 children. His mother was wife number three and sired seven children, with Cde Muduvuri being the third born.
His destiny was always connected to that of President Mnangagwa who, courtesy of his heart of ”gold” selflessly, assisted a compatriot to undergo surgery and in the process saved his precious legs from amputation.
Online Reporter