Gogo (70) from Zimbabwe is looking for her SA relatives
Old woman wants to find her last living family.
A desperate gogo has become a foreigner in her own country of birth and lives a destitute life in a foreign land with no one to assist her to find her last living relatives. Silveraen Gopo is in South Africa searching for her family on her mother’s side whom she last saw when she left South Africa for Zimbabwe at the age of nine.
Gopo has temporarily been given shelter by a good Samaritan in Tembisa. She picked up The Tembisan and called in to ask for help.
The 70-year-old woman said she left South Africa in 1955 when her mother, Joanna Nkosi, got married to a Zimbabwean (then Rhodesian) man named George Ncube. Gopo was born as Silveraen Busisiwe Nkosi. She took up Gopo as a married name when she moved in with a man she stayed with in Zimbabwe.
“When my mother left South Africa she already had four children. When we lived in the then Rhodesia my mother gave birth to three more children.
“My siblings at our time of departure were Thembi Audrey Nkosi, Lilian Thokozile Nkosi and Dulcie Ntombenkulu Nkosi.
“Now every one of my family in Zimbabwe has died and I am left alone. I am here in South Africa searching for the Nkosi family, my mother’s family who lived in the Newcastle area in KwaZulu-Natal.
“In the 1950s the Nkosi family lived on a farm in an area known to locals at the time as Emasotsheni before they were removed to a place they called Mountain,” said Gopo in tears.
Unfortunately, she cannot recall the proper name of the farm and surrounding areas as she was only nine years old when they left for Rhodesia.
When asked for more information that could help in searching for the Nkosi family, she gave names of her mother’s siblings.
“The firstborn child in my mother’s family was uncle Samuel Kuzavele Nkosi and his daughter was Margaret Zibuyile Nkosi. The second born was my mother, and third born was aunt Ellen Nkosi, whose daughter was Daphne Zodwa Nkosi. The fourth child was Daniel Nkosi and his son was Vusumuzi Nkosi. The last born child was aunt Bertha Nkosi who had two children, Makhosazana Nkosi and Mandla Nkosi,” Gobo said.
She said in 1959 her mother came back to South Africa to fetch Daphne Zodwa Nkosi who stayed with them and studied in Rhodesia. She later came back to South Africa.
“We were staying in Malondelas in Zimbabwe at the time,” said Gopo.
Gogo Silveraen is appealing to anyone who might know the Nkosi family from Newcastle to assist in reconnecting her with the family.
Anyone who may have information can leave their contact details at The Tembisan offices or call 011 970 3030.
