WeeklySA_AdminLIVEWIRE: As farmer, seamstress, mother and author, she has changed many lives through her dedication, grit and grace…
By Biénne Huisman
A Limpopo nursing stalwart has defied daunting odds and everyday life convention, which expect someone her age to spend her twilight years in pasture, while reflecting on her long journey with her family.
But, not so Princess Anne-Sheilah Makhado. Instead, she has spent her busy life steeped in building her career in nursing through avid studying, culminating in her recent graduation in a doctorate in nursing science at the University of Venda – at the age of 74.
As a midwife, professional nurse and motivational speaker – among many other things – Makhado wears many hats, including farmer, seamstress, mother and author. Yet, she is hardly done – she still harbours a burning passion of motivating women and girls to unlock their talent. She recently spoke to Biénne Huisman of online publication Spotlight about her long journey as a nurse, and of creating solutions in the public health systems.
Recently returned home to her home in Louis Trichardt after a month in Beijing, China, where she visited her son who teaches English there, she is beaming with fresh ideas after an eye-opening experience.
“In China, I observed a lot,” she said. “It’s peaceful and very clean. I’ve never seen such beautiful red roses right in town, and no one steals these roses. And the elderly there… no one I saw was limping; people are working and they have purpose.”
Reflecting on this, she recalls telling her group of retirees in Louis Trichardt that if they want to stay healthy, they need to make an effort to exercise more and keep busy.
Keeping busy has been a hallmark of her life. Fittingly, she describes herself as “results-oriented” and “thirsty”.
Back in 2015, Makhado’s competing priorities came to a head when she applied for a Master of Nursing course at the University of Venda – 65 at the time.
“The dean said: ‘I can’t take you’ and I said: ‘Why?’ And she said: ‘You got 59.8 marks for your Honours degree’.” This was just below the 60% minimum typically required to qualify for a Master’s programme.
Looking back, Makhado explains that during her Honours degree studies, which she completed in 2010, she was also juggling a demanding role as nursing services manager at Midlands Provincial Hospital in Graaff Reinet, a position she held for six years.
“I had been running an institution where I found nursing issues were not up to a good standard,” she recalled.
The rejection hit hard. “I cried then, like a baby,” she said. “In 2017, I went back to the university and said: ‘I am back to repeat my Honours now’.”
She completed the degree a second time, earning her graduation in 2018. That same year, she enrolled for her Master’s, which she completed in 2020.
Her Master’s research, which focused on the experiences of child-headed households, was inspired by her work with a non-profit entity she founded in 2018, called Voice of the Voiceless.
Building on this, her PhD explored strategies to improve support for these children. She interviewed 15 child heads of households, aged 14 to 19, along with 15 of their relatives, and conducted additional focus group discussions within the community.
“Many of these children, when asked about their parents, would say: ‘We heard that our mother died but we’re not sure when, we don’t even have a picture of our mum’. And many didn’t know their father,” she said.
A key finding in Makhado’s research was a need to educate men around family values.
“That’s why, in my recommendations, I said there should be man-to-man programmes because men are (conceiving) children and leaving the children there. They must learn to take care of their children. Not just dump the mother with the baby. Then the mother has HIV and dies – and the children?”
Another key recommendation was that traditional leaders should play a greater role in caring for orphaned children.
“I went to the traditional leaders, and I said: ‘What are you doing for these children? You need to have a list of the children who are heading families in your area, and you must visit them.’”
With high crime rates, alcohol and drug use, and some child-headed homes unable to secure or lock their doors, Makhado also questioned the role of the community policing forum.
“Are they aware that these children must be protected and kept safe? … The drug sellers know there are no parents and know they can abuse these kids.”
Makhado grew up in a tightly-knit family. The second of seven siblings, soon after her birth in Johannesburg’s Sophiatown in 1950, the family moved to Sibasa in Limpopo where her father worked for the then Native Affairs Department and her mother was a school teacher. “My mother …taught us never to take no for an answer and to never settle for less.”
After attending Shingwedzi Secondary School, she trained and worked first as a teacher, then as a typist. But one day when entering a hospital, she recalls: “I saw the crisp white uniforms… and I knew this is what I wanted.”
At 27, she started her Diploma in Nursing at the then Groothoek Nursing College in Polokwane, moving to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto to specialise in midwifery. She says her first job as a nursing sister in Bara’s buzzing casualty and neurology sections was “wonderful, really”.
How does one become a good nurse?
“Nursing starts with you,” she said. The question is “how would you like to be treated when you are ill?” she added.
In 1984, Makhado moved back to Limpopo to Elim Hospital and then to the former Transvaal Provincial Hospital – now the Louis Trichardt Memorial Hospital – as a clinic sister supervisor, with tasks including managing mobile clinics in the area.
“Working directly with the vulnerable and disadvantaged, women working on farms from a tender age, carrying their babies. I felt a strong need to empower them,” she said.
Another issue close to her heart is children with special needs.
Makhado said in 1998, she helped set up Tshilwavhusiku Razwimisani, a special needs school for children 25km outside Louis Trichardt.
“I used to visit schools in that area and picked up so many children who had some type of disability.” As a results-oriented person, she said she couldn’t turn a blind eye. “So we sat down and identified an area where we could start a school for the mentally challenged.”
Makhado said Tshilwavhusiku Razwimisani started with just 30 pupils and volunteers, including mothers preparing meals. Today, the provincial Education Department is running the school with 298 learners.
“There are moments where I feel like crying. We started from nothing,” she said.
In 2008, Makhado became the nursing services manager at Midlands Provincial Hospital in Graaff Reinet, Eastern Cape. “There was a lot of unemployment and many young people would tell me they wanted to do nursing,” she said. But the challenge was the nursing colleges were far away in Mthatha or Gqeberha.
The solution came to her: starting a nursing training college at the hospital.
“So, I applied to the South African Nursing Council in 2010. Oh, and God has been wonderful, the college was approved in 2012. The next challenge was, where do I get the structures where the school would operate?”
So she negotiated with the provincial Department of Public Works to renovate buildings for student nurses’ accommodation and with the then mayor of Camdeboo Local Municipality, Hannah Makoba, to secure classrooms.
“I used to go out to furniture shops and ask for whatever furniture … for the nurses,” she recalled. This would become the Midlands Hospital Nursing School, today still an accredited institution within the Eastern Cape health system.
On retirement from the public sector at Midlands Hospital in 2013, Makhado returned to Louis Trichardt and focused on motivational speaking, continuing her community outreach work and studies. She also wrote a book called The Master Lock Key.
“It has been and will always be … my deepest innermost thoughts that women are the backbone of the nation. If women can learn to stand firmly in great numbers and become more assertive in issues that concern themselves, their families and the nation, there will be a better future,” she wrote.
Makhado, a divorced mother of three children – two daughters and a son – and three grandchildren, said when she struggled to make ends meet on a nursing salary, she sewed for extra income.
“My mother taught us how to sew. So when times were tough, I sewed track suits for schools. When I came back from work as a nurse, I would take out my sewing machine.”
Farming and growing food has been another joy, and she currently heads gardening projects that supply the Louis Trichardt Spar with spinach, beetroot and garlic.
Makhado underscores South Africa’s need for women leaders, saying that “anything is within a woman’s power”. – Spotlight
