Fulufhelo Tovhowani Makhonya Dzebu (64), believes that people should stay active and keep themselves busy after retirement, so that they remain healthy and strong. He says that for retirees to have a plan on how they will spend their time at home once they have retired is important.
Dzebu, who worked as an artisan carpenter for the government for 38 years, now finds solace in agriculture. He started his own crop- and poultry-farming enterprise when he retired two years ago, which he runs from his backyard at Khubvi Makokoleni village, north of Thohoyandou, and this, he says, keeps him busy all day long.
Dzebu says that, although his farming activities were initially just intended to keep himself busy, his produce happens to benefit the local villagers greatly. "My aim was to provide something to feed my family with but, as time went by, people started flocking to my house, asking if I would sell my produce to them. I realised that l would have to plant more vegetables and rear more chickens then, as the demand was increasing."
He says his love of farming had been instilled by his late grandfather, Joe Dzebu, who planted tobacco. "When we were young, we used to work in my grandfather's tobacco fields all day long. When he passed on, my late father, Jameson Dzebu, continued planting vegetables, and this encouraged me to follow suit. Since I retired, farming has become my life. The only day I don't farm is on a Sunday because I have to go to church then. I start my work at 05:00 every morning and stop at around 18:00; something I never even did while I worked full time. During my days as a civil servant, we worked from 08:00 to 16:30. Now that I have enough time, I can work as much as I can without any disturbance," he said.
Dzebu urge his fellow retirees to do something with their time at home to keep themselves busy. "Anything, no matter how trivial, is better than doing nothing at all."