Simon Chimbetu’s son an impostor?

By Garikai Mazara

After the publication of the story of Paddy Kamusakara two weeks ago, who is saying he was possibly sired by the late Simon Chimbetu, the only logical solution to the puzzle was finding his mother, who has reportedly re-married and is staying in Uzumba.

And since the publication of the story, Paddy has become reclusive, refusing to shed more light on the whereabouts of his mother, arguing the initial story caused disharmony within his family, especially from the maternal side and, if possible, he would want to let sleeping dogs lie.

The dogs that are usually left to lie are the small ones, and if that dog is as big as Simon Chimbetu, then it would be wrong to leave such a big dog lying around. You don’t claim to be a Simon Chimbetu son and expect the world to go round as usual.

On face value, almost everyone is agreed that Paddy is a Simon Chimbetu son, rather look-alike, but further investigations last week have revealed that there could be certain inconsistencies that do not add up to Simon having sired the boy.

First to dismiss Paddy was Allan Chimbetu, the remaining of the Chimbetu siblings, who questioned if it was criminal that people can look alike.

“Are you saying if we search the streets of Harare we won’t find someone who looks like you? Can we then conclude that he is your child? That Paddy guy is day-dreaming and we don’t have any more sons from Simon, more so those who claim to have been born before Collin, for Collin is the eldest that we know to have been born of Simon.”

Speaking from almost the same script was a journalist, now based in the Diaspora, who used to be very close to Simon who said they used to confide in each other the grimmest of their secrets.

“If Simon got a baby dumped on him at any of his shows, he would tell me. Literally we discussed almost every other topic, but Simon never mentioned that Paddy was his son. Sure enough, Paddy would come to Simon’s shows, dressed as smartly as Simon and the story then was that he wanted to capitalise on the resemblance that he had with Simon, not that they were related. So I was surprised when I read in your paper that Paddy is now saying he is a Simon son.”

With the Chimbetus disowning him, the only logical solution had to be found in Murehwa, where Paddy claimed he grew up. On his national identity card, Paddington Kamusakara’s village of origin is listed as Mavhurume Village in Murehwa. That had to be the natural destination. Mavhurume Village, just before Dombwe township, is some 20-30 kilometres out of Murehwa business centre. And Headman Lameck Mavhurume said he had never had a “Kamusakara” in his village.

He suggested that we try another Mavhurume Village, just near Nyamutumbu primary and secondary schools. Again, the headman there said they had never had a Kamusakara. He even had to produce a register of all the families registered under his headmanship, and there was no “Kamusakara”. He had another suggestion, that we try yet another Mavhurume Village, just near St Clare’s Mission, possibly we could be lucky.

So it is to Mavhurume, St Clare’s Mission, that we went and, again, the name Kamusakara was nowhere to be found. The villagers, to include the headman, said they had never heard or seen any such character in their lives. Further investigations with the National Registry for Births and Deaths had some startling revelations. For starters, Paddington Kamusakara was born on March 21 1974, and not 1976, which he had said in our previous interview. His listed village of origin is Mavhurume, and he used St Clare’s Mission School as his postal address when he took his national identity.

Then Lucia Kamusakara, who is supposed to be Paddington’s mother, was born in 1946 and also listed Mavhurume as her village of origin, using the same St Clare’s Mission postal address. A second visit to Headman Mavhurume, now armed with the name of the mother and possible age, drew blanks. No one in the village knew or had ever heard of either Paddington or the mother.

So if Lucia was born in 1946, as the National Registry records show, that made her 27 years old when Paddington was conceived in 1973. And Simon, who was born in 1955, was 18 years old at the time of conception, making him nine years younger than his “girlfriend”.

Probably that is the reason why the mother is not comfortable to open up to her son on the circumstances surrounding his parentage.

Another emerging school of thought is that maybe Benson Chimbetu, Simon’s father, who died two weeks before his son in 2005, could be the father of Paddington, given the age difference between Simon and Lucia. If it is indeed her age, then the person who could possibly have sired Paddington could be Benson, who was a bricklayer and went around the country building houses.

Although it is probable that at 18 Simon could have become sexually active, maybe the age difference between Lucia and him could be the reason why Paddy’s mother is reluctant to let her past be unmasked. Reason why she has not opened up to Paddy as yet on who his father is, 39 years after he was born.

In the previous interview, Paddington argued that since he is a child, he cannot force his mother to divulge much of her past, as that would be tantamount to asking “your mother of her sexual history”. He also said his stance was also premised on the respect that he has for his mother’s current marriage, though he expressed an eagerness, “like every child to know of my parentage”.

Lucia is said to be staying somewhere in Uzumba district. She stayed, at one point, on or about the 2000 elections, in Chakonda Village, Shamva, where she was registered to vote.

Locating and speaking to her offers probably the only solution to answering the mystery that is Paddington Kamusakara, whether he is an impostor who wants to take advantage of looking like Simon, or if he is, indeed, Simon’s son, or he is Benson’s son, making him Allan’s sibling. Sunday Mail