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compounded with the community, which blames witchcraft as the cause of any misfortune.
Damuta has never been tested for HIV and he does not intend to do so. His ailing wife wasted over two years and she finally passed on last month, leaving behind a three-year-old baby whose growth was stunted and looked like a 10-month-old.
The family had moved from one faith healer to the next in search of the elusive healing.
Damuta has been living on a farm in Banket, where he is a labourer, for the past five years. He grew up in the Chinhoyi area. He relocated from his birthplace so as to “run away” from witches who had “cost” him his second son. As assumed, after leaving the witches behind, he ought to have known some peace and enjoyed good health. That was not to be.
Damuta, speaking recently in Chinhoyi where he had come to collect the body of his last infant who joined the mother barely a month, said he would move away from the cursed area with his surviving son since the witches had decimated his family.
“I vow that after the burial of my child I am going to find a job in Raffingora and move away with my surviving son. Evil people have continued to haunt me and today only the two of us remain, so if I do not take any action, I assure you we will be finished,” said Damuta.
After paying my condolences I enquired on the history of the man and his family and wanted to share in his bereavement and see where I could be of help. Damuta explained that he had married a girl from the neighbouring farm in Chinhoyi at a farm next to the GMB grain silos where he grew up.
“I married my childhood sweetheart in early 2000. She lived with her parents at a farm adjacent to where I was born.
“We started a family immediately and we were blessed with a baby boy who is still alive today,” he said. He went on to explain that during the 2005 to 2007 era when the economy went into a downturn, the wife would go as far as Murombedzi centre in search of work.
He would do the same and spend a month or so away from home in search of food.
“It was only during the harsh economic years that my wife or I would go to search for food. I trusted my wife so I do not think she was up to anything then. In fact, I would have known spiritually if she did so since we both attend an apostolic church,” he said.
Damuta still stands by the belief that he is being bewitched by jealous neighbours since he had been promoted to supervisor.
“I know the people who are causing this to my family. The man from Chegutu eyed the post that I got and that is how all my problems started,” he said.
Damuta does not look healthy, he has a persistent cough. On seeing him for the first time, I could tell that he was ill.
He attributed his weight loss to the harsh road that he has travelled and a lack of appetite.
“For the past three months since we were running around from one ‘sowe’ (shrine) to the other I lost my appetite. In fact, I can go for two days without eating,” he added. I told him that one afflicted with TB usually loses weight, sweats at night and lacks appetite so he needed to be tested to find out if he was okay.
He answer was frank and to the point. “My sister, that might be the case other people, but certainly not me.
“As you can see I have told you of my problems so may you excuse me, we have a body to bury,” he said matter-of-factly.
A similar case to Damuta was reported by a Harare man who requested anonymity. He said they requested his wife’s cousin to come and look after their property in Chadcombe as they attended a funeral in Murehwa sometime last year. The man said that he was disturbed by the nagging cough that the cousin and wife had.
“I asked my wife, who is close to them, to tell them that they ought to visit our local clinic before they left for their home the farming areas so that they get tested for TB,” said the man.
“My wife told them of my concern but they attributed their nagging dry coughs to the rains that had lashed them when the attended the end of year church service in the ‘wilderness’,” he said.
“I could not force them so we thanked them and gave them some groceries before driving them to the Mbare bus terminus where they boarded a bus to Shamva,” he added.
The man said the wife, who was pregnant, lost the baby soon after birth and when he heard of this he again asked his wife to phone the couple and ask them to get tested for TB and HIV.
The Chadcombe couple had to drive to Shamva after their plea fell on deaf ears. They found the wife in poor shape and the husband with a splitting headache. They brought them to Harare where they took them to their local clinic the next day.
“We took the ailing couple to the clinic and they were offered voluntary counselling and testing of HIV.
“They both tested HIV positive and had their sputum taken to the laboratory for tests.
“The results came back in no time and confirmed that they had TB too,” said the helpful hand.
He added: “With TB and HIV co-infection the couple was thoroughly counselled and were put on TB treatment first. They did not react adversely to the TB medication and had ARVs introduced thereby.
“You cannot believe what change occurred in their lives in a space of a month. The two, who had lost appetite, now eat anything and have gained some weight.
“The husband’s dry cough has subsided and he no longer smokes or drinks any alcoholic beverages.” Tobacco and alcohol are dangerous to one’s health and when co-infected with TB and HIV the effect is horrendous. Alcohol is said to fuel the TB. In medical terms they call it alcohol fast bacilli.
The Chadcombe couple has instructed the clinic to transfer their relatives to Shamva clinic, which is a walking distance from the latter’s homestead.
They will see the couple off this weekend.
No need to drive them back, they are fit enough to travel by bus.
For most people medication is too late  because they seek help when their immune systems are already compromised.
May all people make it a habit to be tested for TB and HIV rather than to wait when it’s too late.
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