Community steps in to ensure that solitary gogo is respectfully laid to rest
Gogo Sibisi was the last remaining member of her family, so residents saw to it that she was laid to rest in a dignified way, befitting to a respected elderly in the community.
Members of the Nceceni community demonstrated the true meaning to the Zulu proverb, ‘Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu’, last week when they got together to host a dignified funeral for gogo Agrineth Sibisi.
Directly translated, the phrase means, ‘a person is a person through/because of (other) people’, and is usually used to point out that you are who you are because of how you relate to others around you. This was definitely the case as the community members lent a helping hand towards ensuring that the elderly woman, who was living alone after all the members of her family had died, was laid to rest in a decent fashion.
Gogo Sibisi was identified as a person who required assistance last year by operation Sukuma Sakhe, while members of the organisation were involved an outreach program to assist the poorest of the poor within the Mondlo community.
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They discovered that both her maternal and paternal relatives were deceased and she had no one left in this world.
Sukuma Sakhe also found that the gogo qualified to be admitted into a state old age home but she refused to go saying that she wanted to die and be buried where her ancestors are.
It seems that the 90-year old’s wish was granted, as she was found deceased in her house last Thursday.
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“We are highly grateful to members of the Nceceni community. They really lived up to the spirit of Ubuntu throughout, having assisted with making arrangements for the gogo’s funeral. I have never seen anything like that,” marveled the chairperson for Operation Sukuma Sakhe, Hlengiwe Ndlozi.
Sukuma Sakhe would like to thank Siwela Funerals for donating the full funeral service, TFS wholesalers for the donation of a R500 voucher, the Department of Social Development for providing a food parcel, community leaders for offering tents, groceries, and other various other items for the funeral, as well as members of the community who also assisted and went out to see gogo to her resting place.
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