The Sunday News
Robin Muchetu, Senior reporter
A LOT has been written about Cde Jane Ngwenya’s illustrious political career spanning over half a century but little was said about her family life and what kept her going beside politics.
Cde Ngwenya was a mother to three children, two who are already late. Sunday News caught up with her surviving son Shingirayi Victor Ngwenya who gave a history of the years shared with his busy mother who was juggling politics, incarceration and raising a family single handedly.
“One thing that was obvious in the home were her leadership qualities. When I was in school at Milton Junior School (Bulawayo), I was a naughty boy but when I moved to high school at Prince Edward in Harare, I was made head boy and when I think about it, when they said I had leadership qualities I can only attribute it to the old lady.
“Even in the house, mom was clean, tidy, orderly and strict. When we now look at it, we could tell that she was not an ordinary woman, she was a different breed. Most of her friends were in the political circle and we rarely saw anyone out of that circle and the attitude was, if you don’t add value to me then why should I give you time,” he said.
Shingirayi said his mother was an avid crossword puzzle, Sudoku and Target games player, a hobby she stopped when she suffered a stroke. Shingirayi, just like many children of political figures of yesteryear spent little time with his parents.
“I realised that she was pressed for time, maybe that was because of the political situation. We did have quality time but not quite enough, in her older age we did get time that is why her passing on is more of a celebration of her life because there were many deficiencies of time growing up because she was very busy in her career. The last seven years have been wonderful because we spent a lot of time together and she gave me a lot of advice about life and personal growth,” he said.
Shingirayi said she was a devout Christian from the Methodist Church and she used to tell him to look in the Bible if ever he was confused about something. Harsh by nature, but tolerant, Cde Ngwenya’s son said if one pressed the right button, they would be opened to a soft side of his mother.
“The harsh side was prompted by the fact that she was always the lesser number and surrounded by men so I think she built a shell around her to protect herself. One thing that I noticed was she was very big on women being freed, she wanted them to work hard at everything. She always said I must take responsibility for my actions. When I think of her legacy, I feel I must carry that forward as my brother and sister are both late and now, she’s gone. The best way is to live by the qualities she belied in like working hard, being focused and honesty at everything,” he said.
Back in the early 2000s Shingirayi said he used to read the news at ZBC Pockets Hill on part time basis and also do radio and TV adverts, just like his mother who had a radio programme during the armed struggle.
When Cde Ngwenya fell ill, and she could not walk, she was very frustrated as she was used to doing things for herself. She passed away when life at her farm was beginning to flourish.
“Our wish was for her to see the tractors ploughing the fields and seeing the maize germinate as that was her passion. I will carry on her passion and also maintain lessons learnt over the years. She had a huge thirst for knowledge and she was always reading and she knew a lot of things around and beyond her.”
Cde Ngwenya’s famous divorce did take a toll on the family life.
“The old lady needed a man of steel who had his act together, I’m not taking away anything away from her husband who was a bus driver. That typical male back then wanted to marry a wife who will stay at home and wait for him to bring the bacon. But because the old lady was fiercely independent and was clear of what she wanted she would make any man insecure. She had a plan and a vision which would make someone insecure. Whatever she would have chosen besides politics, she would have excelled either way,” he said.
Shingirayi spent most of his early life away from his mother.
“We had a house in Marlborough in Harare and one in Bellevue in Bulawayo. I was never a day scholar all my learning years so that made it easier in terms of care. That’s why I said it was in her retirement years that we really got time together. What helped back then was that I was close to my grandmother, so school holidays were spent with her while mom worked and travelled the world. But she compensated well because that was our life from the onset, she brought us nice clothes and gifts from all over.”
He said as much as it was not pronounced the family knew that they shared their mother with politics which was her lifestyle. Asked on Cde Ngwenya’s stay at Coronation Cottages, a home for the elderly and that she had been
“abandoned”, he said it was not true.
“With what she had accomplished over the years and how she had been rewarded, it wasn’t matching. I remember being mad at her when I was younger saying I was not happy with ‘her politics’, part of the reasons, from our perspective, which could be wrong, we asked why people with lesser history and experience were living better lives than us. We received visits from ministers and all, we never expected very huge things but she got the least,” added Shingirayi.
He said when she decided to move to the home, it was because she wanted to be in Bulawayo near her doctors where she could get care much faster and also to allow her son to grow and be productive on the farm.
“I asked her why she was now living like a pauper yet she had a beautiful history and contribution to the development of the country. Retirement homes were not typically for Africans but here we are, a prominent black woman was living in one. She faded into oblivion when she started to reduce her political participation due to age.
“When President Mnangagwa came into power, he was in touch with her, even when he was Vice-President and Minister, he never stopped caring and communicating with her. It was communication to us that despite his rise to power, he still remembered her and her welfare. He came to see mom and Amai Mnangagwa too and they shared a lot of what mom needed. She even questioned why mom was in a retirement home. Then it was said she needed to live on the farm and watch her crops.
“That is when the President decided to build her a separate home from the current one where she would live and watch work being done. She got a beautiful home built and fully furnished with a borehole and other upgrades at the farm, unfortunately she fell ill when all this was being done for her but she managed to come and spend the last two months of her life in the home that the President built for her. She also received a brand-new off-road vehicle,” he said.
Shingirayi noted that the years spent talking about her neglect were all erased by the new dispensation by President Mnangagwa despite that she was now 85 when all these good things were done for her convenience.
Cde Ngwenya (86) leaves behind one son, eight grandchildren and two great grandchildren. She died on Thursday at Mater dei hospital in Bulawayo. — @NyembeziMu
