The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior Reporter
INTERACTING with Cde Jane Ngwenya in my journalism career opened me up to knowing a woman who was not only a source of news but an affable character who stood for what she believed in.
She never let the “woman, mother, nurturer” tags limit here in doing what she wanted-liberating the country from the oppressor. She watched as she lost vital aspects of her life die each day but she pressed forward until Zimbabwe gained its independence, that was the sign of victory for her.
I began to read more about her in the Press and equally understood who she was to a point where the interaction developed into a close relationship that travelled outside the pages of the newspaper as we also discovered that we hailed from the same rural area in Buhera, Manicaland. Understanding how we were related was the icing on the cake as we had already bonded while on the job.
Gogo Jane as I affectionately called her, was that woman who was present when Cde Jason Ziyapapa (JZ) Moyo died after receiving a parcel bomb in January 1977 at the Zapu offices in Lusaka. She was the woman who watched as her marriage crumbled because of her love for politics and never gave up on her dream to see a liberated Zimbabwe. She would later be known to me as my grandmother through my father.
As I matured slowly in the field, I was given the task of interviewing this woman I barely even knew but had a colourful history in the liberation struggle. I really did not know what questions to ask her but the moment she opened her mouth, I stopped my recorder more than an hour later because she had so much to say and made the interview much easier and me more comfortable.
After the interview she said to me, “Uri mwana wekwa Muchetu, so you are my niece. David your grandfather is my relative” and she explained the relationship which was later confirmed by my father. From that day, I gained the name muzukuru WaDavid from Gogo Jane.
Several interviews that followed were much easier as she was comfortable with me now and I hardly went there with a script of what I was going to ask, she would say so many interesting and new things that would always make a good read. Gogo Jane, despite her advanced age was very sharp and was well versed with both history and current affairs.
There was nothing one could lie to her about because she was always in the know how, being an avid reader of the newspaper daily. We would talk about what was trending and she would give her insights on how she felt some issues must be addressed, especially the political ones. All her solutions revolved around dialogue and peace as a means of solving matters that were bedevilling the nation.
On one of her birthdays, Brigadier-General (Retired) Abel Mazinyane her war time ally, Mkhululi Sibanda the Assistant Editor at Sunday News and I visited her at Coronation Cottages in Bulawayo where she lived before moving to her farm in Esigodini. We brought with us a cake and I brought a blanket, as gifts, she was elated and her eyes said it all.
The blanket, was to become one of the things she always had covering her lap whenever I visited, even on my last visit on 28 May 2021 she was tucked neatly in the same blanket. It symbolised the warmth that she always exuded when we visited her to get some news.
Back in the day then she could do a few things for herself but age and throbbing feet began to take a toll on the liberation giant such that when we visited, she would shout from her living room, giving instructions on how to open the gate. She would then throw the keys through a metal screen door and we would unlock it, interview her and lock her back in her home.
However, on 28 May 2021, I visited Gogo Jane and there was no usual shout to allow me to come in, there was no one to throw keys at me to open the screen gate.
But an unfamiliar face opened the door and allowed me in and there was no sign of Gogo Jane in the living room. I assumed maybe she had visited the farm. However, the Sunday News crew was led into her bedroom where she lay on her bed, sick. I was to later hear that she suffered a mild stroke. She was not the same Gogo Jane who would talk for most of the interview, her speech was slurred but she had her usual smile on her face and tried her best to talk to me.
She sang praises for President Mnangagwa.
“President Mnangagwa helped me a lot with a lot of things but I am not well now. Vakandibatsira ne motokari, nezvakawanda. Shingi (her son) anondibatsira kuenda kuma doctors ne mota. Ndinongotenda President Mnangagwa. I call him my son; I don’t really call him President (chuckling). He called me mama from back in the day,” she said.
She went on;
“My God, my God! I have a beautiful home now; I am going to stay at my home. I have received medication for my condition. My child (President Mnangagwa) is assisting me, I do not lack anything. I am not sure when he will return to see me but he said he will come. When he comes to Bulawayo, he visits me. Amai Mnangagwa has also visited me here too. I can’t speak well now but she has helped me a lot.”
Despite the illness, she said she was still following the news and had read about my Covid-19 ordeal in the Press.
“Yes, I still love the news, I read your story in the newspaper, ndikaona kuti mwana wangu mupenyu, ndaingokunamatira. We are happy when people recover because you cannot be sick forever. I also want to be well. I am happy Covid-19 is under control, diseases come and go we continue to pray that it ends,” she said.
Her last words to me were that of happiness as she said my visit had brightened her day. She also wished I could visit her farm and take pictures of her there. A trip that never was.
When news filtered in that she had passed on, I disputed because the sender of the message was confusing names, with the late Mrs Janet Banana. But reality struck when a colleague confirmed the news. A lovable, warm and witty person she was who will be remembered in history as the woman who sacrificed her marriage in favour of the liberation gun.
Rest in peace Gogo Jane.
@NyembeziMu
