By Tinashe Sibanda | Harare Bureau |
Letshego, the widow of the late South African motorsport television presenter, Gugu Zulu, has received a huge backlash from social media followers after she recently did a television interview just after her husband’s untimely death while mountain climbing.
Gugu died as the couple climbed down Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania on a Nelson Mandela-linked charity trip to raise funds to buy sanitary towels for girls.
According to media reports, the late 38 year old TV personality complained of breathing problems as the couple descended, resulting in his death on 18 July.
Letshego has been criticised on social media for doing an interview with Anele Mdoda on her talk show‚ Real Talk, with critics describing her decision to take part in the interview as inappropriate while others posted saying she should still “be mourning not doing PR“.
According to media reports Letshego has, however, said she would respond to the negative comments soon and those close to the widow have also supported her view that “people mourn differently“.
It is reported that most of the negative comments have since been deleted despite the fact that a sizeable number of people commended her taking part in the interview and thanked her for sharing her story.
A grieving Letshego had reportedly written a note following her husband’s death saying heartfelt things like, “I cry because I simply miss you” and “I lost my best friend‚ my better half‚ my Gugs”, among many other touching sentiments.
Widows are in the general African tradition expected to be modest as they mourn their husbands and normally wear black for some time.
In South Africa, a widow is in certain cultures supposed to give way to other road or path users whom she meets when walking and sit at the back of a bus or taxi so as not to expose other travellers to her back and the possibility of a ‘bad omen or bad luck’.
Letshego and her late husband, Gugu were part of a Trek4Mandela expedition to Mount Kilimanjaro, an expedition led by the Nelson Mandela Foundation aimed at raising funds for underprivileged communities to ensure girls would not miss a day from school due to menstruation.
“My wife is doing fabulous; she has even learnt the local language. Am having flu like symptoms and struggling with the mountain but taking it step by step!! Today we managed to see our destination and our camp is literary above the clouds!!” he said in his last post on July 16.
“I am devastated. I knew him well. I recruited him to climb Kilimanjaro. The last thing he said to me at the airport before he left last week was that he wanted to speak about doing other Mandela Day projects. I feel a huge sense of loss,” the foundation’s CEO, Sello Hatang said in an interview.
Following Gugu’s death, a lot more other condolence messages have poured in from across the country, with many sending well wishes and condolence messages to his widow and their one-year-old daughter, Lelethu.
The group had planned to climb Kilimanjaro to mark Mandela Day, a United Nations recognised day which falls on the late former South African president’s birthday – 18 July, which encourages people all over the world to do community service in honour of the first democratically elected president of South Africa. Nehanda Radio
