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Tendai Rupapa Senior Reporter 

FIRST LADY Auxillia Mnangagwa on Thursday took her Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba Programme, which focuses on moulding morally upright citizens and promote respect for culture, to Bindura University of Science Education (BUSE) in honour of an invitation extended to her by students at universities, colleges and vocational training centres in Mashonaland Central Province.

Those who participated in yesterday’s programme included students from Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University (ZEGU), BUSE, Madziva Teachers’ College, Zimbabwe Open University (ZOU) and Shamva Agricultural College.

The highly interactive session was held in observance of World Health Organisation protocols on Covid-19 prevention – masking up, washing hands and social distancing.

This comes at a time when some youths countrywide were engaging in drug abuse, alcohol abuse, prostitution, lack of respect largely due to Western influences and social media.

Students were taken through various lessons and afforded a chance to ask questions in areas in which they required clarity.

They also prepared different types of traditional dishes, beverages and performed practical chores like pounding and grinding on stone.

The students also provided entertainment through music, poems and drama which highlighted the importance of the mother of the nation’s programme.

Girls were taken into the Nhanga session where the First Lady, lecturers and elderly women presided over, while boys were taken into the Gota with professors, lecturers and elderly men from the community where they were taught various chores that were expected of them and imparted with wisdom.

“Vanasikana do you know that your body is important, it is the temple of the Lord,” the First Lady said. “Do you know that as girls you live for us as your mothers? Most diseases afflicting us as parents today like hypertension are because of you our daughters. 

“Parents will be looking at the distance they have covered sending you to school and you report back with a disputed pregnancy instead of a certificate. As a girl, you should know why you are in school.”

Amai Mnangagwa, as a way of motivating the students to work hard in school, chronicled her upbringing which showed resilience.

“I personally come from a humble family where we covered long distances to school on foot without shoes in the cold,” she said. 

“Because of poverty, we would be ridiculed and my mother was laughed at. To avoid being ridiculed by neighbours, my mother would pretend we had eaten by putting plates outside yet we would not have eaten anything. 

“This made me work hard in school, but these days you our girls, are falling to peer pressure. Should you forget your background because of peer pressure? Are you working hard? Are you choosing your friends wisely? You should choose friends that build you and not destroy you through bad influences. Your parents are looking up to you so that after completing school, you will look after them.” 

Dr Monica Zembere spoke about social media and its influences on children.

“Seeing bad things in the phone compels you to want to do the same,” she said. “Social media has advantages and disadvantaged. Nowadays you are forming WhatsApp groups where you do all sorts of things, including posting nudes such that you end up looking for men to do with them what you would have seen on social media. 

“Do you know that social media is full of human trafficking. Others are visiting dating sites where many girls are invited to some country and disappear there.”

Mrs Judith Hove warned the girls against bad dressing which she said spoke volumes about their character.

“Girls these days are walking in the nude,” she said. “You see some girls bending down while wearing miniskirts as they sweep their family yards in the presence of the father. 

“In the olden days we would dress in a dignified manner and we got married well, but you think wearing skimpy apparel makes you get married. If you look at it, the boys end up marrying girls who dress properly, yet you would have been used like avocados at the market place that are fondled by everyone else. 

“You should read how the environment you are in requires you to dress. The way you dress brings out your personality. My daughters the world has teeth it will devour you. Some will put on long see-through dresses which make people see everything. Let us wear clothes that are dignified that give us a good image.” 

Mrs Hove implored the children to always show respect.

“We urge you to have respect. Some answer their parents in a rude manner. Why not speak politely with your elders? Nowadays you act as if you want to compete with your parents. In our time we would great elders whenever we met them and carried their loads. 

“This is no longer the case with you who no longer show respect. Even in the buses you know longer offer seats to elders. This was unheard of during our time. If you respect elders, you earn blessings,” she said to applause.

Another contributor urged children to be content and not yearn for gifts.

“As a girl do not have the predilection for receiving gifts,” she said.

She made reference to Killer T’s song “Moyo wangu dzikama nekuti zvaunoda handina”.

“Some of you children in universities you want gifts and this leads to trouble,” she said. “You come to university as respectful people but the moment you meet others you change your manners. 

“Learn to wait for your time and not copy others because you do not know their source of incoming. 

“If you fall to peer pressure, you are betraying yourself. Treasure your bodies as highlighted by the First Lady that they are the temple of the Lord. If you do bad things, you expose your mothers to shame. You should be hard and not easy to manipulate. 

“Before you start considering marriage, first consider self-development. Education is the best empowerment you can give yourself.” 

Similar sentiments were echoed by Mrs Dorothy Murasi who spoke on the need for resilience.

“From the background shared by Amai, we learnt the need for resilience,” she said. 

“You should learn a lot from what she said. If she grew weary and stopped midway, she would have failed to succeed in her studies. 

“Amai did not let her background pull her down, it however strengthened her and she worked hard in her studies. When you mother fails to buy tuck these days, you refuse to go to school. Learn to be resilient and focused.”

The children were given time to talk.

One girl told the meeting that some people in their communities including relatives exerted pressure on the girls to get married.

“The problem is people from the communities we come from give us pressure to get married,” she said. “They have a mentality that once you start going to university you would have grown up and you will always be asked when you would get married. 

“If you continue being asked such questions, you are forced to think of getting married before finishing school. You will at times be married by someone who does not even want you to go to school.”

Mr Crispen Mazodza, the dean of students at BUSE and was in the Gota with the boys praised the First Lady for her teachings.

“We thank Amai for such a wonderful programme which teaches our children good manners. This environment we are living in, globalisation has affected our culture and children are following western cultures,” he said. 

“We thank Amai, the First Lady for this programme focusing on students in tertiary institutions. As BUSE after seeing what Amai did for students in Harare, we then invited her over and we are glad she accepted our invitation. This programme teaches children the correct way of life. The children showed interest in the programme and we encourage them to exchange the ideas in their groups and communities.” 

Professor Christopher Chetsanga, the Vice Chancellor at Zimbabwe Ezekiel Guti University, said he was elated for the First Lady’s intervention.

“The meeting we had here with the boys is a very important one,” he said. “The First Lady visited us and gave us an opportunity to share some ideas with the youths. 

“She has been visiting various parts of the country discussing things with people emphasising the cultural importance of our attributes and that is very important. 

“We really need to respect our cultural heritage. Amai is looking at things broadly in our culture and our society.”

After separate sessions, Amai Mnangagwa later addressed both boys and girls.

The boys told the First Lady that the meeting would not end there, but they would continue to meet elders and being taught.

Addressing the gathering, the First Lady described her Gota/Nhanga/Ixhiba programme as a compassionate effort to rescue youths and children from moral decay associated with drug abuse, intra child abuse, unwanted pregnancies, disobedience, negative influences from social media and juvenile delinquency among other social ills.

“I believe that if we return to the source of our nucleus as Africans we can tap into life-changing values and traditions that can help mould our children to becoming better individuals,” she said. 

“Young ladies and gentlemen, the future of Zimbabwe lies in the youths such as yourselves, making it imperative to shape your behaviour in ways consistent with the foundational philosophy of Unhu/Ubuntu.” 

The education anchored in Nhanga/Gota/Ixhiba, lectures, the mother of the nation said, enriched the participants with life supporting skills geared to reinforce moral consciousness and integrity.

“One truth that will never change is that we are Zimbabweans and should be proud of our identity as such,” she said.

Cultural intrusion, Amai Mnangagwa said, had led to the erosion of the country’s set of values and beliefs and this had made children wayward in their conduct.

“What we need to know is that self-awareness of the origins and traditions of a people are very important for the development of a nation,” she said. 

“If you have noticed, most of these cultures that we are trying to follow are stemming from what that group of people believes in. They are not adopting anyone’s values but they are sticking to their own, we ought to do the same.” 

The First Lady said African culture walls are considered to be very rich globally because of the diverse traditions and values.

The First Lady said she was happy tertiary institutions had accepted her programme which was reinforcing the importance of culture.

She made those who attended the programme as ambassadors of her programme to become agents of restoration of the country’s cultural tenets.

Mashonaland Central Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Monica Mavhunga thanked the First Lady for taking measures to rescue youths who had become wayward.

Girls, represented by Miss Rufaro Moyo said they had learnt a lot from the First Lady’s programme.

“We have learnt to behave even at school away from my parents,” she said.

 “We have also learnt of the need to enter marriage as an empowered individual. 

“Education is important in life as it is great wealth. Peer pressure is rife in tertiary education as girls go for blessers but we have learnt that people must know their background and not be influenced by others. I want to thank Amai for her programme which is important to us as children who are the future leaders.”

Kudakwashe Matare, representing the boys said he was grateful to the First Lady for bringing culture back to the children.

“With this programme, we have been equipped with information that makes us become marketable out there after completing our education,” he said. 

“We thank the First Lady for this programme and we have been crying for this programme which she has privileged us with. 

“We have invited opinion leaders like club presidents who will disseminate the information to others who were not here today because knowledge is power.”