Online Reporter
Veronica Gwaze
FROM struggle to stardom. This sums up the life story of local actress Elizabeth Majongwe, of the popular series “The Return of Gringo”. Hers is a tale of a woman who has been there and done that.
The Rusape-born artiste has literally seen it all.
She was orphaned at a young age, found herself in an early and abusive marriage, remarried and became a widow before losing everything to her in-laws.
To escape stress and depression, she had to act in theatres.
Through grit and hard work, she now owns a 28-roomed house in Borrowdale and rubs shoulders with renowned actors.
Periods like the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence are a painful reminder of her rough past.
“My parents died when I was still a young girl and my aunt took me in, so it meant relocating from Rusape to Harare,” she said, fighting back tears.
“A few weeks after my arrival, my aunt’s husband started making advances towards me, much to my discomfort.”
To escape what she still feels may have ended up as a sexual abuse case, Majongwe, aged 16 at the time, eloped to an older man she hardly knew.
Months later, the unemployed man started being abusive towards Majongwe, who was now the mother of a baby boy.
Living at the husband’s family home was unbearable for the young mother. She found it difficult to balance parenting, being a daughter-in-law and enduring an abusive man.
For two years, she was ensnared in a cycle of abuse and unimaginable anguish.
Finally finding courage to leave the union, Majongwe found comfort in a friend whom she moved in with.
In no time, she got a job as a shop assistant.
From the little she earned, she enrolled for a secretarial course at a local college.
It was around this time that she met David Muzambi, the man who, in 1991, became her second husband.
The couple went on to have two children together and became business partners in their lucrative hardware business in the capital.
From proceeds of the business, they built two houses in affluent suburbs, and bought three residential stands and seven vehicles.
However, as fate would have it, Muzambi died in 2011.
“He was a good man who stood by me and helped me heal from my past traumas,” she broke down.
“We had a good life; our children and I were well taken care of. He gave me the room to be hands-on in our business, so I did most of the administration.”
Following the loss of her husband, Majongwe faced an even more distressing situation — just five days after his burial, her in-laws made a shocking visit.
What began as an ordinary day turned into her most harrowing experience as she lost all the assets she had accumulated with her husband to his family.
“They seized the business and everything else, only leaving me with the house that we stayed in,” she recounted.
“From that day, life took a downward spiral and for some time, I contemplated committing suicide.
“The thought of what my children would go through after my death held me back and I started figuring out Plan B.”
To provide for her children, Majongwe became a vendor at the Hatcliffe vegetable market.
As she was trying to make ends meet, depression slowly creeped in.
Her son, a Form Two learner at Prince Edward School, also fell into depression and subsequently withdrew from his studies.
“As I was figuring out a way to convince my son to go back to school, someone just approached me and asked me to consider acting in their project,” she said.
“I had never acted before, but because I was stressed and desperate, I decided to try it out. That was my turning point.”
Her debut was in a local movie titled “Mwanasikana”.
“Whenever I left the set, I felt relieved of stress. That is how I gathered the strength to talk my son back to school,” reminisced Majongwe.
Later, the actress met prolific novelist, playwright and actor Aaron Chiundura Moyo, who gave her a role as Mai Madora in his project “Pedyo Kure”.
What thrust her into the limelight was her role in “The Return of Gringo”, where she acts as the girlfriend of Taurai Boora, the son of the late Lazarus Boora, who was popularly known as Gringo.
She has, to date, also featured in more than four adverts.
She is also part of the cast for local movies “Matopos” and “Prayers”, which are set to premiere early next year.
“Through all these projects, I was able to see my children through school and extend our house into a 28-room mansion that I rent out,” she said.
“Now, they are all adults, and from the roughly US$1 200 that I make monthly, I am able to spoil myself by going on holidays and do many other things.”
Majongwe is also into social work. She works with Mandipa Hope Rehabilitation.
The centre, which currently has at least 30 patients, assists those battling drug and substance abuse.
“I am not doing it for money. Considering my background, I just felt that I should help to transform lives in the community given the drug and substance abuse scourge,” she said.
“We also attend various events across sport codes, providing free counselling and awareness sessions.
“To those whom we admit into our rehabilitation centre, we go on to assist by securing jobs for them in various organisations that we work with to avoid relapse.”
Wenslus Murape
