Super-centenarian Gogo Chifamba dies

By Mehluli Sibanda

Gogo Remitiya Chifamba, who was the oldest documented Zimbabwean alive, has died at the age of 110.

The super-centenarian, who celebrated her birthday in Bulawayo in September, breathed her last at a city private health facility on Saturday. She suffered a stroke four days before her birthday on September 14 and never fully recovery.

Gogo Chifamba, who is being laid to rest at her rural home in Gutu, is survived by her son, 16 grandchildren, 26 great grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.

Her family yesterday said she gave them valuable life lessons on her last days in the way she persevered despite being in pain.

“Gogo Chifamba finally completed her material world life on the 21st of November 2020. She gave the family her last lessons about life and perseverance as she took each day, despite the pain, with great courage. The family is also very grateful to Margran House 24 Hour Clinic for taking care of granny till her death. Granny will be buried at home in Gutu,’’ the family said.

She celebrated her 110th birthday at her granddaughter’s residence in Woodlands suburb in September at a ceremony that was attended by close family members as well as members of the Roman Catholic Church. Gogo Chifamba shared a birthday with her great granddaughter Rutendo Mhaka who turned 26 this year.

At her birthday celebrations, her granddaughter, Mrs Jesca Mhaka, Rutendo’s mother, told of how her grandmother made clay pots and collected thatching grass to send her and her late brother to school. The only other known job that Gogo Chifamba did was working on a tobacco farm in Gweru in the 1950s.

Gogo Chifamba’s husband, Raymond died in 1996 when the two had already separated and she never remarried. The couple had four children, three boys and one girl.

She outlived three of her children, with only her second born son, Samuel, who is 78 years old still alive. Her first- born, Edward died at the beginning of this year at the age of 87. The Chronicle