Beverly Bizeki
A family from Sisk suburb in Masvingo has businessman and ZANU PF Masvingo urban ward 3 aspiring candidate Taurai Mudzwiti popularly known as Bucho to thank after he assisted them to repair their roof which was destroyed by fire on March 5, 2023.
Since then Veronica Zakaria (47) and her family were living at a temporary shelter they were given by the District Development Coordinator’s (DDC) office at local District Development Fund (DDF) offices.
Mudzwiti intervened and paid US$ 650 for roofing material, doors and window panes for the three roomed house which was repaired on July 16 after four months of staying away.
Zakaria said they were happy by what Mudzwiti had done for them since they had nowhere else to go as they where being forced out of the temporary shelter for overstaying.
“I want to thank Mr Mudzwiti for what he has done for us. We were chased from DDF last week and tried to negotiate with them that we had not yet fixed the roof but they said we had overstayed. We tried a number of options but we couldn’t get any help,”
“We approached councilor Rocky when the incident happened and he told us to seek legal assistance but we did not have the money to do so and looked up to the society for assistance.
“I tried to approach other officials from city council for asbestos but they said the asbestos are sold on auction so we approached the aspiring councilor Mudzwiti who tried to approach council to no avail until he took it upon himself to help us,” said Zakaria.
On his part Mudzwiti said he had to help the family after all other options failed and were being chased away from DDF and also they couldn’t live at their house considering the prevailing weather conditions.
“I took the initiative to rebuild the house because the family was being sent back home from where they were and we realized they could not come back because of the condition the house was in and the prevailing weather conditions,” said Mudzwiti.
Zakaria and her brother’s family whom he shared the house with had to share another three rooms at DDF.
The community helped them with food and blankets.
Red Cross assisted with water containers and four blankets for the family which mainly survived on selling samosas.
The family is living without electricity as they need about US$166 to re-wire the whole house and is still in need of help.
