By RICHARD MUPONDE
First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa yesterday landed in the San community area of Makhulela in rural Plumtree aboard an Airforce chopper, becoming the first high-ranking official to arrive in such style in this remote part of the country in decades.
The spectacle was also the first to be witnessed by some of the San people in the area, many of who were seeing a helicopter at such close ranch for the first time.
Mnangagwa was in Makhulela village, about 100km from Plumtree town and a few kilometres from Mabhongwane Game Park, at the border with Botswana, a sanctuary where the San stayed before they were removed by the government of former President Robert Mugabe in mid 1990s.
She was in Makhulela to officially open a solar-powered irrigation scheme she funded for the 40 families, which constitute the San clan, through her Angel of Hope Foundation.
In her speech, Mnangagwa said she funded the project as a way to modernise the San people. The San people are hunters and gatherers.
“I got to know their lifestyle and thought I had to come here to have an interactive session with them and hear what they want. I have also drilled a borehole for them,” the First Lady said.
“They are now busy with their irrigation scheme. They have changed from being hunters and gatherers. Now, they don’t follow after professional hunters, but are sending three people to go and dry the meat and bring it back for the whole community, while the rest are working in their gardens.”
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She promised the community a solar-powered irrigation in June last year, ahead of the harmonised elections.
It was completed in May by the department of irrigation and is now under a flourishing vegetable.
The event was attended by Matabeleland South Provincial Affairs minister Abednego Ncube, Minister of State in Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga’s office, Evelyn Ndlovu, Bulilima- Mangwe senator and Zanu PF politburo member Simon Khaya Moyo and Bulilima West legislator Dingimuzi Phuti, among other dignitaries
