First Lady starts progress visits to widows projects
Tendai Rupapa
Empowerment proponent First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa, who initiated business ventures for widows countrywide under her Widows Association, giving the widows dignity and a chance to be self-reliant, visited Mashonaland West Province for a follow-up on the projects.
The highly subscribed progress visit and legal clinic comprised tents manned by representatives from the Master of High Court dealing with deceased estates and another for the 575 GBV Call centre, which Dr Mnangagwa encouraged people to visit and get help.
Legal clinic is a programme often associated with legal aid organisations, that provides free legal services.
In this case, the Office of the First Lady is working with the Master of High Court and the Police Victim Friendly Unit to allow people, mainly widows and widowers, to be conversant with inheritance laws.
The First Lady, after realising how widows, widowers, and orphans were losing property upon the death of their spouses and parents, has been initiating legal clinics to educate them on their rights by bringing experts on inheritance issues who equip them with knowledge on legal matters.
In support of Gogo Chipo Chabayanzara’s business, Dr Mnangagwa bought some of her produce, including a sack of nutritious munyevhe, which Amai Mnangagwa said would be used during her countrywide school feeding programme.
Gogo Chabayanzara was widowed 35 years ago.
Last year, as patron of the First Lady’s Widows Association, Amai Mnangagwa, through her Angel of Hope Foundation and its partners, availed an assortment of goods to widows to kick-start small-scale retailing businesses in their districts aimed at economically empowering the vulnerable group.
In addition, she gave them farming inputs, goats, chickens and chicken feed to kick-start livestock production and horticulture farming.
Mashonaland West was the first province to benefit.
Amai Mnangagwa returned to the province yesterday in Hurungwe district where widows from all the seven districts gathered with their success stories.
Their projects are doing well and they are eager to continue working hard.
They are grateful to the First Lady for nurturing them and wiping their tears away.
The First Lady too, could not hide her excitement.
“I am glad to have come here to witness what you have been doing. You were the first province to benefit from the First Lady’s Widows Association and I have come to monitor progress. I am gratified by the work you are undertaking together. You are continuing with the projects that I initiated for you,” she said.
“As a mother, you are the family’s keeper and everything rests on your shoulders before it reaches your spouses. If the husband dies, like in your case, everything becomes your responsibility and you therefore need to keep on working hard while looking after the children.”
One of the groups from Chirundu told the First Lady that on top of their projects, they intend to build a Bed and Breakfast hotel.
However, the mother of the nation gave them advice.
“Those from Chirundu, I heard you saying you want a Bed and Breakfast hotel, but I urge you to start with shops because the hotel may be costly given that you are just starting. Shops bring quick returns,” she said.
Assistant Master from the Office of the Master of High Court, Ms Senzeni Madzivadondo, highlighted the challenges encountered by widows and orphans and emphasised the need for people to register their marriages.
She thanked Amai Mnangagwa for the inheritance education being given to women.
“I have come to share with you issues that widows and orphans are facing regularly. The Office of the Master of the High Court looks at issues of inheritance. When a person dies, they leave behind a lot of things like houses, cars, insurance policies, cattle, and household effects. These assets must be protected legally until they are legally distributed.
“As the Office of the Master of the High Court, we encourage you to run to the office of the Master of High Court to register the estate when someone dies. When women lose their husbands, the cases that they encounter include the widows coming to register late, saying the husband died in such and such a year, and I was dispossessed of the house by the elder brother, saying I did not bear children with the deceased, so I had to leave.
“These are the scenarios that we encounter. In some of the cases, a widow comes saying she refused to be inherited by the deceased’s sibling and ended up being chased away. We want to let you know that inheritance isn’t all about sexual intercourse. If you encounter such challenges, run to the Master’s Office within 14 days of your husband’s demise. All you will be doing is to preserve the property that was left behind by your spouse and protecting your children’s inheritance,” she said.
Ms Madzivadondo also gave a list of persons who can register an estate.
“Those who can register the estate, we say if there is a wife who has been left behind by her husband, she can register, the deceased’s child can also register. Relatives of the deceased can also register the death.
“We make you register so that we assist you to have the goods distributed legally. Most women stay with men without registering their marriages. Let us ensure that all marriages are registered so that in future, we have no challenges. When someone dies, we often hear aunties and brothers-in-law saying that so and so was not the wife of the deceased because they will be looking at assets and then go about taking someone who was divorced a long time ago.
“This is the person they put ahead so that they too can get something out of it. We are saying come and register so that we help you to safeguard the deceased’s assets so that they are distributed legally. We are saying even the orphaned children can register because some parents both die at the same time, or die one after one another, without the issues being straightened out. You are not late. Even if your parents died in 1996, our offices will tell you what to do. All you need is a copy of the death certificate, if you don’t have one, at our offices we will give you forms to fill in free of charge, and we ensure things are fixed. We will open a file and we will hold an edict meeting where we appoint an executor who we will ensure things are distributed properly. We need someone who can write and we will assist that person.
“There is a new law on civil partnership. Civil partnership has nothing to do with inheritance. It has its own place. Wills are another thorny issue. We need to write them well and register them with the Master of the High Court.
“We discourage people from distributing assets following things written by the deceased in a book without involving the Master’s Office because that is when the elder brother will take something by force and leave children in the lurch.
“Nowadays, there is a programme being implemented under the Land Reform Programme where some people were allocated land without registering and without title deeds. We are encouraging you that some lost their loved ones; those must come forward and register their estates. We therefore give you a letter of administration which you will then use to register the land in your name.
“Let us not leave our inheritance going to waste when the Master is there to help you. We thank you, Amai, for the education you give women. Let us register our marriages,” she said.
The police Victim Friendly Unit gave shocking statistics of the rape of children on their way from school in Hurungwe as well as the sexual assault of elderly women while sleeping.
“Our section is responsible for investigating cases of abuse of women and girls. It was seen that it was not possible for a woman or girl to get into a police station after being raped or being abused, it was not possible to report at the charge office per chance, neighbours will be present and end up spreading the issue to other people.
“Therefore, this section is there to provide dignity to people such that when they get to the police station to report their case, they just say they want to see the Victim-Friendly Unit. Police officers in the Charge Office will automatically know that the issue you want to report needs privacy so you will be shown an office to discuss.
“Here in Hurungwe we are seeing that rape cases are on the increase. Our children are being raped on their way from school. As police officers from the Victim Friendly Unit, we are saying it is essential that when we are in our home area or community, we must see to it that when our children are going to and from school, are they in groups? We also need to have duties of escorting our children to school instead of leaving them at the mercy of rapists. In February alone, we received four cases of young girls – two who are six years old and two who are seven years old, who were raped on their way from school. “Therefore, we are saying to parents, let us help one another to see to it that our children are protected,” the police said.
Houses of elderly women, the police said, must be locked from inside so that rapists do not enter in the dead of the night.
“We are also seeing that elderly women are also being raped by members of their communities. This is mainly happening as these elderly women sleep in their homes. Rapists come anytime, maybe the elderly woman would have just closed the door and not locked it. The rapist just enters the house with ease and commits the crime. “Neighbours and close relatives are the common rapists. Such crimes are prevalent at homes. If a woman takes her brother to stay at the home, they are committing rape crimes. As police, we are concerned that if homes are no longer safe, where will we keep the children? Stepfathers are also raping children and sadly the women protect the rapists,” the police said.
Beneficiaries of the First Lady’s Widows Association showered praises on the mother of the nation for initiating projects that help them crawl out of poverty and raise clean money to sustain their families.
Mrs Yvonne Mazvimbakupa, who was widowed three years ago, said her life had changed for the better, thanks to the First Lady.
“I am a beneficiary of the First Lady’s Widows Association. We were given goats by the First Lady to start a project, and they are now so many that we can now give other groups as a pass-on initiative. She rolled out the project so that every woman does not go about begging. We were also given chickens, which are now many, and we can realise income from selling the chickens and eggs. “We are learning to work as women and anyone can do it. Besides livestock, we are also involved in horticulture where we are growing tomatoes, pepper, chillies, pumpkins, and cabbages. We are now delivering these to supermarkets where we have a big market. Our mother taught us to work using our own hands. Through what we are doing, we can send our children to school and no longer have to get into bars to look for fees. Our lives have changed for the better,” she said proudly.
Similar sentiments were echoed by another widow from Hurungwe who said the First Lady had enabled her to set foot on the train of development.
“We have eight groups that are selling kapenta, poultry has four groups doing road runners. We also have one group that rears guinea fowls. We have groups that are producing school uniforms and work suits using sewing machines. For peanut butter making, we have two machines so far, and we have two groups that are into goat farming, farming has three groups, and we have those with an incubator hatchery, we have one group,” she said.
Another beneficiary from Chirundu was over the moon.
“To be where I am today and if you look at me, you will not see that I am a widow because of Amai Mnangagwa. Our mother educated us, she empowered us and imparted us with knowledge and uplifted us. As widows, we were looked down upon in the community, if you walked or associated with a married man, you were branded a prostitute. However, because of our mother, she uplifted us. We were given capital by the First Lady, she gave us goats and groceries for projects. We are rearing chickens and we managed to procure a hatcher for eggs.
“We can now lend each other money to buy plastics for resale through our mother. We are no longer frequenting bars and we can now look after our grandchildren. We thank you verily and wish God grants you more years Amai,” she said.
Minister of State for Mashonaland West Provincial Affairs and Devolution, Marian Chombo, thanked the First Lady for her initiatives. – Herald