Father conquers all odds in child’s interest

It seemingly is ending well and will likely lead to success for a child who was in a tug-of-war between her parents.

This is about a 15-year-old girl who through the father’s effort was transferred from Pholosho Junior Secondary School where he paid the nominal fees to a Dominican Convent boarding school where he doles out R5 600 per month and R56 000 annually. The money is from hard-earnings from his upholstery business at the Organic Market informal settlement in Kew.

Eseuvao Kimba Namarogolo’s family story which featured in Father and Daughter get reunited of August 2018 and others in Alex News is on parental friction which saw the child abscond from school and home resulting in the intervention of social workers, police and the court. The saga ended with the father hosting for her, a birthday and farewell party en route to boarding school. Her friends were joined by his church members, social workers and court officials in the absence of the school representatives. “They were invited and I presume they didn’t think much about the 8th December party, forgot or were just busy at that frenetic time of year,” Namarogolo mused.

He trekked to South African from Malawi in 1993 in search of a better life, a refrain for all migrants lured to South Africa, particularly Joburg’s elusive gold and heaven-on-earth lifestyle. Soon he met the love of his life with whom he had the child only for her to abandon them weeks after her birth telling him that he could do whatever he wanted with the child.

He was granted legal custody of the child, nurtured her through school until vultures popped up and almost snatched her as he blinked, “They mislead her through a dubious dance initiative I wasn’t consulted about which made her miss school, change her character after being told I wasn’t her father and put at risk to social ills including teen pregnancy.”

In the process, he said the mother, Juliet Madinane also popped up and worsened the situation by luring the child to her Orange Farm home where, after weeks of school absence, the police and social workers recovered her. Despite the absence, she made the grade for entry into boarding school. “I am over the moon that she grabbed the opportunity after rumours suggested she was disinterested in boarding school.”

At the party pastors and social workers are said to have urged the child who consented, to commit to her education, refrain from bad company and negative influence, remain on the straight and narrow path of education, acquire a career for herself and secure her life in a world filled with scavengers who prey on the poor and neglected. Namarogolo added that the mother also asked for forgiveness for withholding her mothering role and misleading the child. “At my age, I harbour no ill feelings for her but declined when she asked to take the child to the new school, where I left her in safe hands.”

As she matures, the value of better education and a positive outlook to life will sink in and protect her from temptations. She will also be free to visit her mother but be back in school on time after the holidays. Namarogolo’s dream known by the mother and her from her infancy is for the child to be a pilot, fly the skies to America, the world and most importantly, Malawi, to know the country of her ancestry,” this said tongue in the cheek aware that parents’ wishes for their children often don’t come true.

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