Chimbetu's mother had worms ooze from body

Simon Chimbetu

I have over the years when I tracked down musicians for my column Filecheck encountered various tales of musicians who resorted to muti to make their careers better.

The story about how an evil spirit is causing havoc in the Chimbetu family was long coming and I was waiting curiously to see what would happen especially after the family’s mother died mysteriously and talk then was that the late Simon had a hand in it.

I also remember that there was a time when Simon held Christmas shows at the farm in Chegutu when the family's mother was alive.

I heard the tale about how the late Simon and the late Ketai Muchawaya visited a sangoma in Chipinge where they were given muti to enhance their careers from two interviews I had with separate people in 2005.

One of those people was Knowledge Kunenyathi who has since converted to ZAOGA and the other was Naison Chimbetu whose interview resulted in Simon withholding support from him.

In my stories, I only touched on Ketai’s allusion of how musicians used muti but steered clear of giving names. I also did the same with Naison’s after he had pleaded with me not to write anything about the family.

Kunenyathi made no secret about how musicians use muti. He told me most musicians during their time did not want anybody to touch their instruments. He said the split of Kasongo was largely because of muti.

When I asked him who in particular had muti, he said Ketai and Simon had muti they got from some sangoma in Chipinge.

(I have the notes. I keep my note books from those interviews because they are valuable to me especially now when I am compiling a book on Zimbabwean musicians. I remember the interview with Kunenyathi. It was in a church in Seke on a Sunday.)

Later when I spoke to Naison, I asked him about muti. He hesitated and told me how their mother had died. He said she died a horrible death where worms ‘oozed’ from her body.

I also asked him whether it was true that Simon had caused him harm through muti when he allegedly slept with his wife during his incarceration.

Again he hesitated, asked me whether I would write it in paper? I promised him that I would not and he admitted it.