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Sen Mahofa

George Maponga Masvingo Bureau
At one time she was revered as the “Iron Lady of Masvingo” politics. Her political ambidexterity made her stand out as one of the few female politicians who managed to hold fort and carve their own course in a province then reputed as the hotbed of factionalism and dominated by men.

For Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Ben Mahofa, who breathed her last early Sunday morning at Makurira Memorial Clinic, politics was a staple diet having entered the fray in the formative years of African nationalism in the early 1960s.

She passed on at the aged of 76, but the former Gutu South legislator’s life will not be easily obliterated from the Masvingo political landscape for many years to come.

Sen Mahofa at her peak, boasted a booming voice as well as political swagger and acumen that defied her modest education by Zimbabwean standards.

Foes and allies agreed on one thing when it came to Sen Mahofa. She was a forthright and hard working politician, leader and mother who stood out as a champion of the development of ordinary people.

The late national heroine was a jovial character who always reminisced on her first days in the political limelight as the first provincial Zanu-PF Women’s League member for Masvingo Province soon after the attainment of independence.

Sen Mahofa would jokingly talk about how the late national hero and legal supremo Dr Eddison Jonas Mudadirwa Zvobgo would soon after independence admonish Zanu-PF leaders from running business enterprises.

“Little did we know that while he (late Dr Zvobgo) was warning us against trying to run personal businesses, he was slowly getting his way into the hotel business.

“No sooner had Dr Zvobgo warned us against running business did we hear that he was now the new owner of the then Protea (now Regency) Flamboyant and Chevron, we later on laughed about it after he defended himself saying as a leader he could do what no other person was allowed to do,” said Sen Mahofa on one occasion.

Sen Mahofa defended ordinary people and in Masvingo she is fondly remembered for vigorously pushing for people to get land.

She worked tirelessly for Tokwe-Mukosi flood victims to get compensation and got applauses whenever she spoke about issues affecting people.

Sen Mahofa hated people who “cut corners”.

After her appointment as Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister, Sen Mahofa took big firms in the province head-on for their indifference to Community Share Ownership Trusts (CSOTs).

She engaged big firms like Tongaat Hulett, the Lowveld sugar producer and Save Valley Conservancy for them to contribute to CSOTs.

Tongaat was the first to toe the line and poured US$300 000 into the Community Share Ownership Trust for Masvingo and Minister Mahofa directed that the money be shared by all the seven administrative districts in Masvingo.

“We noted that there were some districts that were never going to benefit if we said companies were supposed to contribute money towards development of areas where they operated.

“So I directed that Tongaat’s contribution to the Community Share Scheme be shared by all the districts, though Chiredzi and Mwenezi where the firm operates, got a lion’s share.”

The Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister vigorously pushed for the takeover of Tongaat Hulett cane plantations in the Lowveld for redistribution to landless people.

Although she faced resistance, Sen Mahofa stuck to her guns and always reiterated the need to empower ordinary people in Masvingo.

She hogged the limelight after blocking Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi from moving into Burquest Farm owned by day-old chick producer Ms Helen Mitchell on the shores of Lake Mutirikwi.

Sen Mahofa reasoned that the province would not sanction Burquest’s takeover as the farm was of strategic economic importance to Masvingo Province with Ms Mitchell churning out over 20 000 day-old chicks per week.

Sen Mahofa defied her failing health to attend to key party meetings across the length and breadth of Masvingo. Despite her poor health, which made her address meetings while seated, her determination to see Masvingo prosper was unquestionable.

It was because of her strength and resilience that she managed resume her duties as Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister after a prolonged absence occasioned by her hospitalisation in South Africa having fallen ill in 2015 under mysterious circumstances.

She openly told off her enemies who thought she would not make it.

In her home district of Gutu, Sen Mahofa’s shadow loomed large and there was unanimity that the district was firmly under the political charge of the “Iron Lady”.

Having started as the first female Gutu district chairperson from 1980 to 1984, Sen Mahofa’s political profile in the district grew until her name became synonymous with her home area.

In the district, the national heroine is credited for a number of life-changing projects like the tarring of the Mpandadwana-Mushayavanhu Road that provides easy access to the biggest health referral institution in the district – Gutu Mission.

In Gutu South where she was Member of Parliament for over 20 years, Sen Mahofa is known for initiating projects like construction of Matezva Dam and pushing for the development of an irrigation scheme that has since started to benefit villagers in arid parts of Chiwara communal lands such as Makwirivindi, Mungezi, Chidyamakuni and Matanda.

A number of clinics in the constituency such as Majada together with schools such as Chiwara, Vumba, Majada and several rural service centres were electrified in the early 1990s in Gutu South at the behest of Sen Mahofa.

After 2008 elections, many started writing Sen Mahofa’s political obituary after she failed to make it to Parliament, but the “Iron Lady of Masvingo” bounced back in the 2013 polls where she landed the senatorship for Gutu.

She surprised foes and allies alike following her appointment by President Mugabe as Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister in February 2015, taking over from Mr Kudakwashe Bhasikiti who was fired from Zanu-PF and his position in Government for being part of a cabal fronted by former VP Joice Mujuru that sought to depose the Zanu-PF First Secretary in the run up to the 2014 ruling party Congress.

Sen Mahofa earned several nicknames for her hands-on and no-nonsense approach. Prominent among the nicknames was “Chikoforo” which was inspired by her inborn trait of leaving a mark everywhere she goes.

Mourners eulogised over her death with many fondly remembering how she tirelessly worked to ensure the people of Masvingo were empowered. Sen Mahofa was born in 1941 in Chivi and attended Chibi Mission and Morgenster Mission schools.

She enrolled for a nursing course at Morgenster Mission where she attained a Diploma in Nursing between 1958 and 1960.

In 1973 she enrolled for a Diploma in Community Development at Domboshava Training Centre and was active in early nationalist politics that saw her joining the United National Democratic Party before joining Zapu in 1960 and the then Zanu in 1963.

Sen Mahofa was a renowned war collaborator who worked with the likes of the late Vice President Dr Simon Mazorodze supplying clothes and medicines to freedom fighters.

From 1980 to 1984 Sen Mahofa was councillor for Ward 20 in Tirizi Gutu and at the same time served as the first woman council chairperson for Gutu District.

Sen Mahofa was elected Gutu South MP in 1985 and occupied the seat until 2008. She also served as the first Zanu-PF Women’s league provincial leader for Masvingo in the 1980s.

Sen Mahofa served as Deputy Minister of Women’s Affairs from 1987 to 1992 and Political Affairs Deputy Minister from 1992 to 1997. From 1998 to 2007 Sen Mahofa served as Deputy Minister of Gender and Youth Development.

In 2013 she was elected senator before her appointment as Masvingo Provincial affairs Minister in February 2015, a post she occupied until she breathed her last.

As her body will be lowered into her final resting place at the national shrine tomorrow, the “Iron Lady of Masvingo” will join other luminaries from the province, among them, the late Vice President Simon Muzenda, late legal supremo Cde Eddison Zvobgo and his wife Cde Julia Tukai Zvobgo, former Speaker of Parliament Cde Nolan Makombe, academic and diplomat Dr Stan Mudenge, decorated commanders Retired-General Vitalis Musungwa Zvinavashe and Retired Air Chief Marshal Josiah Tungamirai.

Masvingo will of course have been orphaned with the departure of another icon, mother, unifier and above all proponent of socio-economic development or just Chikoforo if you like!