For Diouf Ncube (21) and his sweetheart Nokuthula Sibanda (20) it was nothing but a simple public gesture, a declaration of their love and an announcement on Valentine’s Day that they are an item, but for a nation starved of love stories, the trending images of the Bulawayo couple wearing matching t-shirts that were seemingly misprinted (or swapped), the “spectacle” was a source of entertainment.

On Tuesday, the Pumula South suburb couple brought the city to a standstill as they paraded their love for all to see without fear or shame and in no time they were trending on various social media platforms that include Twitter, Facebook and WhatsApp after someone snapped an image of them as they walked past Tredgold Magistrates’ courts.

The two met in 2020 in the hood when they were working in the fields. Diouf spotted Nokuthula and waited for her grandmother to leave the fields before he approached her and asked for her number.

“I passed by their fields and her grandmother seemed to be wrapping up to leave the fields, so I waited from a distance and kept an eye until I was sure that she had left. I approached her and she was very shy, maybe because she had been working in the field and was covered in dirt, you know how girls are when it comes to looking pretty and clean every time.

“When we started talking over the phone, I could tell she was playing hard to get but within a few days I was able to convince her that I was worth a shot,” said Diouf.

For Nokuthula, who was in Form 4 at a local school at the time, the young man was worth risking the relationship she was in as her boyfriend seemed to be too busy to spend time with her.

“When I met Diouf, I was dating someone else, so they co-existed for a couple of days. It was during the Christmas days and I had plans with both of them for Christmas but the consistency and attention that I got from my new man convinced me to leave the other guy. It was really promising and I think he did a really great job in convincing me that he was different,” she said.

The couple’s evening strolls and constant meet-ups were cut short within a few months after Nokuthula was called to South Africa by her mother soon after her final exams.

“The time for her to leave was a very painful moment for both of us and she was the one crying saying she feared that I would forget about her. We agreed to make the long-distance relationship work and somehow, we managed.

“She stayed that side for seven months and came back and we are happy to be celebrating three years in this relationship. I know it is not much because there are people who have been together for decades but for our generation, it is not an everyday thing to come across a young couple that makes it past a year,” said Diouf.

It was not easy for their parents to approve of their relationship but their determination to be together forced their parents to relent.

“When I got to South Africa, I had to use my mum’s phone and I had to explain the contacts that I communicated with. She was furious at first and told me that I was too young to be dating and that I was risking my future but after I narrated my experiences with him and seeing how consistent he was with contacting me even when I was away, she approved and gave me the parental lecture on not rushing into things and other things.

“When I came back I introduced him to my uncle’s wife and she is one of the people who guide us and help us address our issues whenever we seem to be failing to solve them on our own,” said Nokuthula.

Diouf first told his grandmother that Nokuthula was just a friend, nothing more.

“My grandmother first saw me with Nokuthula at our gate and when she asked me who she was, I told her she was just a friend. She obviously didn’t believe that but she never said anything about it until she bumped into us taking an evening stroll. Then I had no other option but to come clean about it and she warned me about playing with girls and breaking their hearts. From then, my grandmother is my counsellor when it comes to everything that we go through,” he said.

Diouf has no time for other girls, he only has eyes for Nokuthula.

“All girls are beautiful out there, and as a young man it is so easy to be chasing around a lot of them but at the end of the day you have to know what you want and focus on building it. She is the one I want, I chose her and I am looking forward to experiencing my life with her and sharing with her everything that life is going to offer us along the way,” he said.

Nokuthula is sticking to one partner and says jumping from one guy to another reduces a woman’s dignity.

“It might seem fun to say ‘ng’yaba qeda abafana’ (I am dating a whole bunch of them), but at the end of the day, you are the one who is being ‘finished’ as a woman. You lose your dignity along the way and risk contracting diseases or pregnancies that will burden you in the long run,” she said.

At the moment, Diouf is an irrigation drip layer operator. His sweetheart is expecting to complete her baking course this June at a local institution in Pumula South.

The couple does not stay together as Nokuthula is taking care of her two siblings who are still at school and Diouf is renting his own place in Pumula South after his grandmother relocated. -state media