Zimbabwe: Wheeling self to the field, leg amputee (55) etches footprints in urban farming to survive after hit and run accident
“I sell the produce to some members of the community so that I can buy some necessities,” he said.
By Darlington Gatsi
Destiny TV
Jan 31, 2023
Excerpt:
A 55-year old wheel-chair bound Harare man, John Mazvidza, defies odds as he tills a maize field which has become his source of livelihood since 2008 when he was involved in a car accident.
Mazvidza was a victim of a hit and run accident in 2008 while working for a local security company which led to his legs being amputated.
The amputation condemned Mazvidza to a wheelchair and in the process he lost his job as a security guard.
Sitting on his wheelchair facing a green maize field, evidence of his tremendous success, Mandizvidza narrates a night that changed his life.
“I was working as a security guard on a night shift. A car came off speeding as it was involved in a chase with police and hit me before the suspect run away.
“After that accident that is when I ventured into farming because I already had a passion,” said Mazvidza.
Mazvidza is among many urban farmers who take advantage of idle land to farm maize for their small families.
This urban subsistence farming hedges many from high prices of mealie meal in most supermarkets.
Despite many – elderly people and disabled – being beneficiaries of a stipend from the Ministry of social welfare through mobile money transfer farming augments few thousands.
