Tryson Chimbetu neglects father’s grave
By Wellington Zimbowa
While Tryson Chimbetu has seized each and every public platform to pay tribute to his late father, a visit to Naison’s grave at Chegutu Cemetery tells a different story and it leaves one convinced that the 25-year-old dendera starlet still has some homework to do.
For Tryson to be enjoying that fame today, it is because he is riding on his father’s legacy.
The grave is a pathetic site which is not fit for a musician of the stature of the Doctor Nero maker, who succumbed to tuberculosis in 2005. That was after a lifelong career in music, which began with his late brother Simon Chimbetu before he broke away to form his group, the G7 Commandos.
And it appears Simon, who bagged more awards than Naison during a glittering career, continues to outshine his young brother, even in death, as Simon lies at the Chinhoyi Provincial Heroes’ Acre while Naison’s gravesite is the cause of much emotional anguish to some dendera fans.
With no tombstone, no flowers and only a rusty and weather-beaten sign inscribed with the musician’s name as well as birth and death dates and a plate (whose bottom has been punctured, as per tradition), is all what marks the grave where Naison Chimbetu lies.
It appears the youthful Tryson, who this year was endorsed as the Red Cross youth ambassador, has failed living up to the billing to fellow youth who look up to him.
When reached for comment, Tryson said the issue of his father’s grave was not for him to comment on as it involved the greater Chimbetu family. He said Allan was better positioned to answer any questions.
Allan said everything is in place for the laying of a tombstone on Naison’s grave.
“As you are aware in November we don’t do any of these traditional ceremonies so we will do it in the first week of December, once we are past November. We had wanted to do it in October, but the schedules were just too tight. As I speak to you, everything is in place for that ceremony.”
Just this year in March in what was dubbed “Dendera United, At Last” the dendera offspring, including Tryson who has since crowned himself “Dr Nero”, put aside their long-standing differences to pay tribute to the late Dr Nero at a well-attended show at Andy Millar.
The condition of Dr Nero’s grave becomes is worrying. Surely, Tryson would only part with a few dollars to pay for labour and a few bags of cement for the tombstone. Early this year, the younger Dr Nero released an album which he said was a dedication to his late father.
“We have to take the direction of our fathers and what they established for us. We have to take it further in the way they would have wanted to go. I am still to fully establish that direction and continue playing dendera,” he was quoted as saying. Sunday Mail
