Correspondent
A legend, pioneer and patriarch, Zephania Gilbert Ngwenya, affectionately known as Daddy was born on 13 January 1930, at Moroka Village (Francistown) in Bechuanaland (The Republic of Botswana). He was last born son to Ntoni Ngwenya and Wochee Ngwenya (nee Gonde Nkomo).
After being separated from their parents, the mother passed on and their father was summoned to fight in the Second World War. Daddy and his three siblings re-located to Dombosema Village (Zimbabwe) to be raised by their uncle, Kolostina Gonde Nkomo. Daddy started his primary schooling at the age of 14.
In 1947, when their father, Ntoni returned from the Second World War, he and his siblings were moved back to Moroka Village and Daddy continued his schooling at Moroka Primary School. During the same year, the family moved to South Africa and settled at Alexandra Township Johannesburg.
In 1949, Daddy, Lucas his brother and their cousin followed his sister Elizabeth, to Kimberley, where he resided until at the time of his death.
He was a hard worker who held two jobs to try and make ends meet, as a driver and doing garden jobs. He improved the quality of his life by studying part-time at long-distance institutions until he qualified as an accountant from the South African College of Accountancy, becoming the first black accountant in Kimberley.
In the mid-1960s, Daddy joined Haworth Ndimane a, firm of attorneys as a Book Keeper. They were later joined by Professor Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe upon his release from Robben Island in 1969. Daddy and Professor Sobukwe developed a close companionship and camaraderie, to the extend that Daddy named one of his children Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe .
In 1966, he was united in holy matrimony with Patricia Rebecca Manininyane Ngwenya (nee Mathe). The couple was blessed with three sons.
In the 1970s, Daddy started serving the community of Galeshewe as a civic block leader. Between the 1980s and 1990s, he co-founded several ventures, the Galeshewe Tenants Association (GATA) and the Botswana Burial Society, where he served as a lifetime treasurer. He was an active member of the National Federated Chamber of Commerce (NAFCOC).
In 1977, he started his firm of Bookkeepers and Accountants: GZTN Bookkeepers and ventured into other business adventure in 1982 by opening GN Fruiters.
Daddy valued education and was a hands-on parent by serving at various School Governing Bodies (SGBs) and in the community until the year 2000.
The deceased was a baptised Seventh-day Adventist Church member who conducted Bible studies. In 1949, he and three fellow congregants (Jackson Mdluli, Joseph Mkhize, and George Linda), joined the Njovu family and started the first Adventist Church for Africans in Kimberley.
In the mid-1960s, while cycling to his home, God used Daddy to spot a small corrugated iron sheet church structure in Coos Street, which was later procured to become the first Seventh-Day Adventist Church building for Blacks. He continued serving his church and advocated for the establishment of the Trans-Oranje Field (TOF) of the Seventh Day Adventists. This resulted in establishing churches in Upington, Olifantshoek, Postmansburg, Warrenton, and Jankempdorp. He served the church in various capacities.
Daddy died at the age of 94 after a long illness and was buried on Saturday, 3 February 2024.
He is survived by his loving wife, older sister Elizabeth, three sons namely Themba, Howard, and Robert; two daughters-in-law, Charity and Lesego; 14 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
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