Times Of Swaziland: WOMAN WALKS 15KM TO ASK FOR FOOD

WOMAN WALKS 15KM TO ASK FOR FOOD
================================================================================
Thokozani Mazibuko on 02/12/2023 06:24:00


NTANDWENI – A 49–year old woman walks over 15 kilometres to ask for food
from relatives.
According to Phumaphi Msibi (49), she walks barefooted under the scorching sun,
from her home at Ntandweni to Sulutane, both areas under the Dvokodvweni
Constituency in the Lubombo Region. Despite facing significant challenges,
Msibi, driven by the needs of her six children, undertook a gruelling journey of
over 15 kilometres, barefooted, in search of food from her relatives in
Sulutane, for over four hours. Msibi disclosed that she had no choice, but to
take the long journey, as she and her children were without food for days. “It
has been years since I have been in this situation my husband decided to desert
me and left to build another home, where he got married to another woman,”
disclosed Msibi.
She received a 10kg mealie meal pack from one of her relatives after her 15km
walk. “They are also in a similar situation like me as, you know that it is
difficult to do subsistence farming with success, due to the weather and climate
in this area, in particular,” she said. Msibi told Eswatini News, that she had
to endure the hardships for more than 10 years now since her husband allegedly
abandoned the home. “I have been involved in a small business where I made
strings from an aloe plant (hhalibhoma) which I sold to House on Fire at
Ezulwini.  Unfortunately, they stopped buying the strings from me during the
COVID-19 era. Since then, life has not been easy, and sometimes we go to bed
without any food.”