Staff Reporter
Gogo Jambaya, born Cecillia Manyike, has not walked around her community on her own since 1987.
The day started brightly, like any other, and she had to work the land to fend for her family, just as is done by all rural families during the cropping season.
But from the blue, a land mine blew off her legs up to knee level, and in an instant, she could no longer work for her family.
Neither could she walk on her own. Gogo Jambaya lives in Mashubi Village, Ward 28 in Chipinge South Constituency, under Chief Garawa. Thousands of land mines were laid in the 1970s at the height of Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle as colonisers wanted to prevent people from crossing into neighbouring countries such as Mozambique and Zambia, from where they would confront the racist colonial regime and bring independence to their motherland.
Other land mines, especially in the Chipinge area, were also laid during Mozambique’s bloody civil war, and people living in border areas, not just Chipinge, continue to be injured or killed by the landmines.
By November 2022, it is understood that 1 322 land mines had been removed in Chipinge, while over 1 500 had either been killed or injured by the land mines since independence.
Gogo Jambaya, lives about 4,5km from the Mozambique border, is one of those people that have been harmed by land mines.
And since then, life has been horrible for Gogo Jambaya, and even her son who had to carry her mother to the clinic on her shoulders, if he didn’t get a wheelbarrow from neighbours.
She couldn’t go to the shops or till her fields anymore. Literally, the land mine confined her indoors, and it took sickness to fetch her out and be out and about.
However, the formation of Forever Associates Zimbabwe (FAZ) Trust, seems to have been done with people like Gogo Jambaya in mind.
FAZ has members across the country, who comb through communities looking for people in need of assistance, and if they can, they activate their Team Leaders, who then source for funds to do what they can, to address the challenge faced by people and/ or communities.
Mr Emmanuel Garawa and Ms Servemore Ziyabanga, who hail from Ward 28, the same as Gogo Jambaya’s, got wind of the challenges the elderly woman was facing when she needed to visit the clinic and other key places.
The name ‘Emmanuel’ means “Go with us”, while ‘Servemore’, simply means “do more to help your community”.
That is what was done by Mr Emmanuel Garawa and Ms Servemore Ziyabanga, in keeping with President Mnangagwa’s “Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo/ Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo” mantra. The two immediately activated their lines of command and in no time, Gogo Jambaya received her wheelchair. Now, as she said, she can easily visit the clinic for scheduled checks, and even for vaccination should there be an outbreak of another disease, as happened with Covid-19.
She didn’t say many words from the moment she was lifted and sat on the wheelchair by a couple of high-profile people, who she never imagined would visit her some day in her life.
Said Gogo Jambaya: “I thank you for this gift. I am now able to move around the community because of this car that I got from the President.
“I didn’t pay even a cent to get this wheelchair. I just saw a young man and woman coming here saying ‘Gogo, if we arrange a wheelchair for you, would you like it’.
“So, for some time, they didn’t come back and I thought it was just a joke. But here we are today. I really thank President Mnangagwa for this car. I am grateful.”
FAZ is an affiliate of ZANU PF, whose members live in the communities, and establish the challenges that people face.
Where they can, the challenges are addressed at no cost to the beneficiaries, as was the case with Gogo Jambaya.
Apart from the wheelchair, she got a grocery hamper and US$275 cash to enable her to go for cancer tests, as was proposed by medical experts.
Other FAZ members from Musikavanhu Constituency, donated R500 and US$40 to Gogo Jambaya, despite Chipinge South not being their area. FAZ team leader for Chipinge South Cde James Maposa said they will continue working to improve the lives of people in the community, in line with the mandate we have form the President.
“As FAZ we are the eyes and ears of the President. He has given us the mandate to go out and check on the challenges being faced by people on a daily basis.
“The idea is to try to address such challenges to the best of our ability in line with the President’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind.
“I want to thank our members from this Ward who identified Gogo and pushed for her to get support, and here we are today,” said Mr Maposa.
Chipinge South legislator Cde Enock Porusingazi, handed over the donation.
He praised FAZ for the initiative.
“FAZ has been helping people in this community but this assistance for Gogo Jambaya has come at the right time.
“Gogo has been struggling to go to places where Presidential Inputs are distributed, to go for Zanu PF meetings and even to the clinic. Through this donation, we have seen from close range the President’s mantra of leaving no one and no place behind,” said Cde Porusingazi.
Zanu PF Central Committee member Cde Wilson Khumbula, who attended the event, said the gesture was humbling, and came at the best possible moment.
Cde Khumbula is among the thousands of people that have either joined or rejoined Zanu PF after realizing it is the future of the country.
He said the donation to Gog Jambaya indicated that President Mnangagwa really meant it when he said developments should leave no one and no place behind if the country was to attain an upper middle-income society by 2030.
“I want to thank FAZ for helping Gogo Jambaya. What you have done is in line with the President’s ‘Nyika inovakwa nevene vayo’ mantra,” said Cde Khumbula.
“The FAZ members from this village (Mashubi) who identified Gogo Jambaya, have helped build their own community and this is commendable.
“As we go to elections this year, let’s all have the spirit of unity. When you want to achieve anything, you unite as a nation. That is why you saw some of us joining Zanu PF. The President wants unity and we thank God for giving us such a leader.”
Cde Khumbula said a peaceful election will consolidate the unity that President Mnangagwa stands for, and called on all parties to observe peace.
“Let’s not fight each other but unite as demanded by President Mnangagwa.
This is a year for us to unite. We want leaders who help develop the country, not those that call for sanctions.
“Other leaders such as the late Ndabaningi Sithole and late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo, never called for sanctions on Zimbabwe,” said Cde Khumbula.
The event was attended by representatives from the War Veterans League, Teachers for Economic Development, Mahwindi for Economic Development, Zanu PF Youth League, District Coordinating Committee members, Chief Garawa, and village heads, among others.