Annette and I were very fortunate to be part of the crew for the ZPSF April trip to Zimbabwe to distribute the food boxes to our needy pensioners in Zimbabwe.
April 11, 2026: It was an early start for Johan, Frans, Annette and myself as we had to make it to Musina by the end of the day and the truck is governed at 80kmh. Annette and I followed the truck in the bakkie and it was slow go to start due to the endless and years long road construction through the pass to Kanyamazane. The recent heavy rains had damaged roads all along the route and we only pulled into Baobab Cottages at about 5pm hoping for a good night’s rest in preparation for crossing the border.
April 12, 2026: This morning we left for the border at 7am. For crossing the border, I traveled with Johan in the truck and Frans and Annette took the bakkie across the border. It was interesting for me to see the process needed to get the truck over. Amazingly the north bound crossing was very quick on the South African side, but this is not always the case depending on the officials on duty. The Zimbabwe side was packed with trucks, mostly empty ore carrying trucks, all waiting to be given permission to enter the country. The ZPSF agent at the border was well prepared and the Zimbabwe side of the border was very efficient so we met the bakkie at 10am on the outskirts of Beit Bridge. The road to Bulawayo hasn’t improved in years and there were sections that have dirt detours that have been there for nearly a decade. At one police roadblock mid questioning we were hurriedly told to move on and I saw blue lights behind me and pulled over. This was the first of two motorcades we experienced and three that we saw. Expensive dark SUVs with tinted windows took up the entire road and flew by us and the very stressed police manning the roadblock. In Bulawayo we spent the evening with Willem and Caroline NEL and their two boys, Jean and Anthony. The event of the evening was the appearance of an Easter bunny which I will leave for Frans to talk about in his report.
April 13, 2026: Caroline took Annette and I to the ZPSF warehouse in the industrial area to see the operation. The boxes were still being packed because some items were missing and they were waiting for them to arrive. Annette’s directive on this trip was to talk to the people involved and find out about their stories and here she interviewed Angela ENGELBRECHT who is one of the helpers in the warehouse. In the afternoon we were dropped in central Bulawayo and we explored some of the converted buildings, walked through the municipal building and then walked through part of Centenary Park to the Natural History Museum. We took an InDrive (Zimbabwe’s answer to Uber) to Athlone Cemetery to find the grave of one of Annette’s relatives but I will talk about this in a more personal report. The evening was spent relaxing at Willem and Caroline’s home.
April 14, 2026: We started at the warehouse a little after 6am, the truck was loaded and we added the last few things and our personal items into it. Johan, Annette and I headed out of Bulawayo just as the sun was rising and our first stop was Boggies Trust in Gweru. We made very good time to Gweru arriving a little after 9am. Bruce CHILCOTT was there to open the gate for us and a crowd of the residents were gathered to greet the truck. You could tell that the arrival of the truck was a social event bringing not only food boxes but a chance to chat to visitors. Annette jumped into action and interviewed Charmaine ESTERHUIZEN, Alan LEYER, Lorraine BRONCKHURST and Keith THOMAS while Johan and I took care of the unloading and checking off of boxes. After the boxes were sorted, I chatted to Bruce CHILCOTT who used to work for Rhodesia Railways as an engine driver and to Charmaine ESTERHUIZEN who it turns out is one of the first white triplets born in Bulawayo.
Our next stop was in Redcliff at the Hurbert Lee Cottages. Redcliff is a shell of itself since the shuttering of ZISCO. We are a few minutes late here and you know how much the residents look forward to the arrival of the truck because we get worried phone calls to find out if we were in trouble along the way. The residents were gathered outside to see us and to have a chat. This was a short stop as we had a long way to go yet, but Annette got a chance to chat to Anne SHEPHERD, who had sadly and recently lost her husband, and Diane PRINSLOO.
All to soon we had to move on as we still had two more stops to make. Lynbrook Home in KweKwe was our next stop, Johan maneuvered the truck over almost non-existent roads through the town to get there. A few residents were there to greet the truck and they laid out tea and cold water for us. It was a very hot day and unloading the truck was a sweaty business. Annette was busy chatting to some of the residents while Johan and I worked on the unloading. Annette met with Hazel GIRDER-BROWN, Alan HAGEMAN, who used to do advertisements for the hotels, and Maureen KASCHULA. It turns out that Alan HAGEMAN and I met during one of the July Braais in the UK in 1999. While we were chatting Ken CONNOLLY arrived to collect the boxes for the outsiders who live away from the home and he and I had a good chat about the old days.
Our last stop for the day and our accommodations for the night was at Westview Homes in Kadoma. Before we got there, I had to get something to eat and then we bumped our way through Kadoma to the homes. We were met by Del PARKIN who helps to organize the boxes and checks off them as they are unloaded. At this stop Annette was able to talk to Agnes KAYE, Danie HARTMAN and his sister Marty MOLLER. I got a chance to sit and talk with Danie HARTMAN once I was done with the boxes and find out that he had been a long-time farmer in the Karoyi area. Del PARKIN took us to see the vegetable garden that they have created to supplement the resident’s diets, but they are in desperate need of seeds. It is an early night for us after a simple dinner with Del PARKIN.
April 15, 2026: It was not such an early start for us as our first stop, Greenways Trust in Chegutu, is only thirty minutes away and we didn’t want to arrive too early. As we are getting ready to leave Agnes KAYE and Del PARKIN came out to give us hugs and to again say thank you. The gratitude is almost overwhelming, but our elderly pensioners live in tough conditions that most of us cannot fathom being in. ZPSF fills not only a need for food, but a need for human contact and the knowledge that there are people who care. Off the main road and on the way to Greenways Trust the tarred roads were all dirt and we passed the still named Hartley Junior School with its standard boarding hostel blocks. At Greenways Cheryl ALBISINI, the administrator, met us with Rory STEWART. Rory was very quiet to begin with but eventually had a good chat with Annette. As we bounce through the dusty streets of Chegutu my thoughts are with these pensioners whose world has shrunk to within the high walls of the old age homes and what they must think of what is going on around them.
The road to Chinoyi was very bumpy and deteriorating and ran through many kilometers of unused prime farmland. On the outskirts of Chinoyi, suddenly the massive agricultural operation of Avalon appeared where they grow blueberries and a variety of other crops. The story of this farm is for another day and another discussion. We bumped our way through Chinoyi passed Chinoyi High School to Sunningdale where we are greeted by Heather NEL and Johan HAASBROEK. With many helpers from the employees we got unloaded very quickly and just as quickly the news of the truck’s arrival spread and people showed up to collect their boxes. Annette visited with Cynthia YORK who was originally a Bulawayo farmer, Dennis NEL who used to run butcheries, and Bela BOTHA whose mother had just turned 100. I had a lovely chat to Jennifer FORTESCUE as I helped to carry her box to her flatlet. Jennifer got her teaching degree at the age of 60 and produced lovely colouring books for schools that featured the flowers, trees and shrubs of Rhodesia. It is so hard to see what the Zimbabwe situation has done to these people and yet amazing to see their resilience and spirit to carry on.
Our last stop for the day was after the terrible road into Harare. Along the way we passed through endless lands of maize and a number of new grain silos as well as the already existing GMB silos. Thankfully the road over the Great Dyke was clear and this made the journey a bit easier. As we drove along streets in Marlborough, we were pushed off the road by another motorcade of big black SUVs with tinted windows. We stopped to unload at John and Leonie HERBST’s house as they distribute the boxes to areas such as Mazowe, Bindura, Kariba. Simon from CFU arrived and picked up the CFU boxes. At this point Annette and I left Johan there and we went to spend the evening and night at George and Sally GEORGIOU’s home. George and I grew up In Mount Darwin together and we have not had a concentrated time to visit with each other for over 30 years.
April 16, 2026: After and early start for Annette and I at the Central Registry office in Harare we took a taxi to meet Johan and the truck in Msasa Industrial area. Our first stop for the day was in Marondera and a small group of our pensioners are in the parking lot to meet us. There was little time to chat as they were in a hurry to get going, but Annette manages to find out a little bit about Greg COLLINS who was originally from Wedza. Peter BANKS was there to say hello but he is looking very old. Very quickly we pushed on to Rusape, the road was good so we made good time. Resthaven Homes is always a wonderful stop with residents who want to chat and who, despite their situation, have a wonderful community spirit. Once we had unloaded the truck, we were treated to a wonderful tea with lots of goodies to eat. Each resident it seems brings their favorite dish. Annette chatted to Rose CALLAGHAN who used to live in Harare, Veronica PICKARD and Phil PRESTON.
Now, very full from all of the goodies, we hit the road again to Mutare, passing through what must be some of Zimbabwe’s most beautiful countryside. The ride up Christmas Pass was devoid of large trucks so it was easy and we cruised into Mutare and headed to Des BEKKER’s warehouse. One hundred metres from our destination the truck got stuck in a huge pothole, actually the spare tyre was caught on the only remaining piece of tar in the road causing the back tyres to lose contact with the ground. Two hours later, after digging, putting rocks under the tyres, lots of stress, advice from the gathered crowd and a little bit of humour, a front-end loader arrived and carefully lifted the back of the truck and gently pushed while Johan drove the truck forward out of the pothole and we parked it at Des’s for the night. Our goal of offloading the truck had been thwarted by a pothole! Our accommodation for the night were at Strickland Lodge and after cleaning up and decompressing we met Des and Sally BEKKER and they treated us to a lovely dinner and a few very welcome and necessary beers.
April 17, 2026: This day turned out to be our longest day mostly because we had lost two hours in a pothole. The offloading of the boxes for Mutare and the surrounding areas was accrued out efficiently and the empty boxes stacked neatly and secured in the now nearly empty truck. We headed out of Mutare for Masvingo via Birchenough Bridge before the traffic in Mutare became too chaotic. The road was decent by Zimbabwe standards and amazingly there were few police roadblocks until after Birchenough Bridge. We arrived in good time at Pioneer Cottages in Masvingo. Maria and Sister Connie were there to greet us and help with the unloading. We had hoped to make up some time by leaving quickly but the staff had prepared a lovely lunch for us and so we sat and ate. Jimmy MILLAR came in to chat for a few minutes and to thank us for his box.
The trip to Zvishavanie was uneventful, but the road started to deteriorate as we got closer to town. This delivery was small with only two boxes being unloaded and Michael TIMVIOS sent a driver to collect them from us. The road to Shurugwe was lined with environment disasters with unregulated open pit mining and mine dumps virtually on the road. Shurugwi Pass barely has a road and we crawled up it in first gear until we entered Shurugwi where the road dissolved into one big pothole. It maked the MUUS Cottages virtually inaccessible, but we made it just as the sun was going down. We were only able to visit with the residents for a short time and they are some of the neediest recipients of these boxes. They live in conditions that most of us would find trying at best and I regret that due to the time of day we could not spend more time with them. Hoping for better roads and it now being early evening and dark we headed for our stop for the night, Boggies Trust in Gweru. However, the road was a continuation of terrible and now the added problem of it being dark. We made it into Gweru and arrived at Boggies Trust where Pete and Madelaine ESTERHUIZEN had prepared dinner for us which we were so glad of. Pete and I had a walk back in time chat and then we collapsed into bed.
April 18, 2026: Today was the 46th Anniversary of Zimbabwe Independence and so we left Gweru not knowing if we will encounter any issues. Pete ESTERHUIZEN and Bruce CHILCOTT saw us off. Thankfully other than some government vehicles that must have been late for the party and a bumpy road, we had an uneventful drive back into Bulawayo. We returned the truck to the warehouse so it could be emptied, Johan and Frans took a short drive down the Beit Bridge road to ensure that the truck could get through as some events had closed it a few days earlier. Then we spent a lovely evening with Willem and Caroline NEL and their boys.
April 19, 2026: We left Bulawayo as the sun was rising and headed for the border. There were a few more police roadblocks than usual but we were waved through. I took over driving the bakkie just before Gwanda and Annette and I were scheduled to drop the last box along the way. We stopped at Makado Ranch to drop off Paxie WILSON’s box and goodies and had a lively chat with her. Paxie epitomizes the plight of our pensioners in that she is isolated and starved for company because the community around her has disappeared. She shared a lot of stories with us, but we had to leave all too soon to catch the truck. Just outside Beit Bridge I traded with Frans as he took the bakkie over and I rode with Johan through the truck section. Robert again assisted us on the Zimbabwe side which is amazingly efficient and professional, but on the South African side we were left standing in the sun while all the immigration officials had lunch behind closed windows. Finally, three hours after entering the border we headed out for Louis Trichardt and a well-deserved rest.
April 20, 2026: There was plenty of time to reflect on the trip as we made our way back to Malalane. Our needy pensioners in Zimbabwe depend so much on these trips and the ZPSF is a life line for them as conditions get even more difficult and expensive in Zimbabwe. ZPSF cannot give these pensioners everything they need, but through all of the donations from across the world they are able to make their lives a little brighter. I found the pensioners that I met to be so incredibly thankful to all of the donors and despite being worn down by their circumstances they have a fighting spirit. These pensioners are proud people who have worked hard over their lives and have had everything taken away from them. It was Annette’s and my honour to be able to join this trip and to assist in our small way, but it is Linda, Johan and Frans who carry the heavy burden of making the trips possible and these trips cannot happen without your donations and your help. In these tough times worldwide please remember our pensioners in Zimbabwe, I always keep in the back of my mind the oft used statement “There but by the grace of God go I.”
Chris WHITEHEAD
Head office South Africa contact details:
Linda Schultz – linda@zpsf.co.za / zpsf@zpsf.onmicrosoft.com – (C) 079 6082676
Johan Schultz – johan@zpsf.co.za – (C) 082 4979328
Section 21 Co Reg. 2007/034036/08; NPO Number 096733; Section 18A PBO No 930031642
