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Walter Mswazie Correspondent
AS news filtered throughout Zimbabwe, firstly, as a rumour on social media, secondly, as was confirmed by family members, that Mbuya Maud Muzenda was no more, a dark cloud, once again, enveloped Masvingo Province sending shock waves in the country.

Mbuya Muzenda (88) died on Tuesday afternoon at the Avenues Clinic in Harare after battling hypertension and diabetes.

Zimbabwe was still mourning the passing on of national heroine and Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Ben Mahofa, who died on Heroes Day when death again “knocked” on the door — this time “stealing” Mbuya Muzenda from the millions who loved her.

For Zimbabwe, it was a double blow as the country was mourning former Zanla member of the General Staff Cde George Ruitanhire who died last week.

Mbuya Muzenda’s death pained many whose lives she changed for the better and many others she did not know.

When her husband, the late Vice President Dr Simon Vengai Muzenda died on September 20, 2003, she naturally took over his role as a leader and philanthropist.

Vice President Muzenda had assumed the role of a benefactor of hundreds of less-privileged children in Masvingo Province.

Known for her warm and nurturing heart, Mbuya Muzenda assumed the moniker “Mother Theresa”.

To her family, she was not only a pillar of strength, but an epitome of peace and love.

During the war of liberation, she single-handedly raised her children when her husband was jailed by the Smith Regime.

Despite being tormented by those who sided with the oppressors and the white oppressors themselves, she stood steadfast in supporting the cause of the liberation struggle.

This was in sharp contrast with the pressure and threats Mbuya Muzenda was subjected to during the days of her loneliness while Dr Muzenda fought the oppressive rule of the colonisers alongside President Mugabe, the late Dr Eddison Zvobgo, the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo and many others.

In the 1970s, wives of nationalists were tormented by white settlers.

With their husbands locked up in prison, oppressors forced the women to reveal the secrets of the war.

Other nationalists who had skipped the borders to wage the war from outside had their wives tortured and jailed as the colonial regime exerted pressure on them to snitch on their husbands. However, dedicated wives in the mould of Mbuya Muzenda did not budge.

Her husband’s activities and whereabouts remained a secret, though she shared updates with her children who wanted to know about their father.

“I would try by all means to console my children who had remained behind, while Tsitsi, Theresa, Mordester and Vitalis went to war with my husband. I would tell them ‘your father is fighting to seize back our country from the hands of white people who are oppressing us, he is going to come back’.

“I had my last born Tongai, Virginia, Tendai and Chikwereti in Mvuma,” she said in an interview with ZBC recently.

However, the most trying time in her life was around 1977 when she lost one of her daughters, Theresa, who was about 18-years-old in the Chomoio Massacre in Mozambique.

Theresa had joined the war alongside her siblings who include Tsitsi, who is now Energy and Power Development Deputy Minister, Vitalis, a pilot and Air Zimbabwe chief executive and Mordester.

Mbuya Muzenda was at the family home in Mvuma when news of the Chimoio Massacre traversed the region.

She was working as a nurse in the mining town.

Her other children survived the massacre after going outside their room to fetch drinking water. The pain of her daughter’s death and the failure to see where she was buried continued to haunt her up to her death.

According to Cde Tongai Muzenda, his mother became hypertensive when she heard the sad news about Theresa’s death in Chimoio and had been battling the disease since then.

She soldiered on despite her loss and continued to provide freedom fighters with medication and sometimes health services since she was a trained nurse.

Mbuya Muzenda would smuggle drugs into freedom fighters’ camps and sometimes attending to those with different ailments despite the disapproval of her bosses.

By that time it was not easy for freedom fighters, let alone ordinary black people to get medication because the Smith regime’s laws were restrictive.

Mbuya Muzenda confronted the Rhodesian colonial government head-on while battling with the administration over underpaid black professionals like her.

She fought vigorously to be treated equally with her white counterparts.

The late heroine was eventually arrested and detained for supporting her husband in the struggle for independence.

The torture, incarceration and ill-treatment did not deter Mbuya Muzenda as she defied the threats of imprisonment and loss of employment.

She remained unshaken and supported her nationalist husband and never betrayed the protracted struggle.

However, the pain of losing a daughter at a tender age could not easily disappear from her mind.

Each time she recalled her experiences in the liberation war, Mbuya Muzenda’s face showed signs of distress, especially when she spoke about her late husband who she always described as a down to earth man.

This she did with nostalgia.

Cde Tongai said his mother was a humble, caring, loving and straight forward woman who reviled corrupt ion.

“She was a caring mother, a larger than life character and also quite loving. She did not want anyone to benefit from corrupt activities and would tell you straight without hiding whenever you are wrong.

“I think she had adopted the spirit of Jews that did not want to work for profit,” the Gutu West legislator said.

He said Mbuya Muzenda’s aversion to corruption could have been adopted from the late VP Dr Muzenda who was also a straightforward man.

Like her husband, she was so generous that she would give much to the poor, leaving her family with little. Cde Tongai said their parents would sometimes consider other children’s welfare ahead of their own, a habit he believes he has also inherited.

In her last days, Mbuya Muzenda just had one wish! She wished her late husband would be honoured through the installation of a statue in Masvingo City’s CBD.

“I wish Government would erect a statue in Masvingo CBD like what was done in Bulawayo.

“In Bulawayo, a statue of the late Vice President Dr Joshua Nkomo has been installed along the main street which has since been named after him.

“The statue has been erected in honour of Umdala Wethu’s sterling work and similar developments should be done in Masvingo,” she said during The Muzenda Memorial Golf Tournament in Masvingo last year.

While her aspiration is yet to be fulfilled, at least something has been done.

The KwaVaMuzenda Cultural Village in Mucheke, Masvingo, established from the late nationalist’s house is a reminder of the life they lived with the late Vice President.

The Muzenda family house in Mucheke was reportedly built in 1896 and has since been turned into a national heritage site, courtesy of Friends of Joshua Trust and the Great Zimbabwe University’s Department of Culture and Heritage.

The Friends of Joshua Trust creative director Mr Rayban Sengwayo expressed shock at Mbuya Muzenda’s death.

He said the Trust was working on profiling her life as she played a crucial role in the late VP Muzenda’s life as she was always besides her husband through thick and thin.

“A devout Christian in her own right, Mbuya Muzenda, who was Catholic, was instrumental during the war when she stood by her husband.

“She supported the struggle and was not affected by the torture she suffered at the hands of oppressors,” Mr Sengwayo explained.

He said the Muzenda Heritage Project has been dealt a heavy blow because the Trust was still expecting to get more information for the complete profile of the Muzenda family from the late heroine.

“The project is still ongoing, but I felt humbled at the way Mbuya Muzenda cooperated when we established the cultural village last year. She provided crucial details on how they lived with her husband and that helped us to equip the site with the necessary information ideal for tourism,” he said.

Born on October 25, 1928 in Matsikidze Village, Masvingo District, Mbuya Muzenda attained Standard Six at Gokomere Mission before training as a nurse at Makumbe Mission Hospital, Chinhamora.

She then worked at one of the municipal hospitals in Bulawayo in the 1950s.

She married the late VP Muzenda who was already a trade unionist demonstrating against the Rhodesian settler government along the likes of Cde Benjamin Burombo.

Mbuya Muzenda stood by her husband in the cause to liberate Zimbabwe that started with the founding of the African National Voice Association in Bulawayo in 1947 in which the late VP Muzenda was elected secretary-general.

A humble woman who played a pivotal role in the struggle and after independence, she will be remembered for her philanthropy, principles and allegiance to Zanu-PF.

Rest in peace Mbuya Muzenda!

Go well Daughter of the Soil!