Tormented, abused: Tafi’s sad life on Byo’s streets

By Bruce Ndlovu
After having spent over two decades plucking out beautiful country tunes on his guitar, Bulawayo’s beloved visually impaired performer Tafirenyika “Taffi” Dube now wants out, as he has grown tired of constant abuse on the streets of the City of Kings.

Although the life of the street performer has never been easy, things came to a head for Taffi when he lost his beloved guitar to thieves, leading to an outpouring of sympathy from many who wondered how anyone would have the audacity to pull off such a heartless act.

According to Taffi however, this is nothing new as he is always on the receiving end of abuse when the attention of passersby is elsewhere. This latest incident is only the tip of the iceberg, he told Sunday Life last week, but it might be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back.

“I have so far been fortunate to get the goodwill of many people who took it upon themselves to help me out in this difficult time. I just wish I could get a better environment to practice my craft because here I’m everyone’s victim. I’m now tired of the constant abuse. Vagabonds have in the past almost smashed my machine but the worst are schoolchildren who sometimes sneak up on me and press keys on my keyboard. That’s bad because the keyboard is not strong at all,” he said.

Taffi said although he had experienced a lot of abuse during his time on the street, this was the first time that someone had gone as far as taking any of his possessions from him.

“In all my life playing here at Pioneer House, I’ve never lost an instrument to thieves. This was first time and it really came as a great shock. Instead of the hiding place that I was using, I now leave the keyboard in the shop in front of where I play because at least the shop is locked overnight,” he said.

After years of treating Bulawayo pedestrians to renditions of the late Don Williams’ classics, Taffi had developed a close affair with his guitar, an instrument he came to regard as a loved one.

“The pain I felt at losing that guitar was similar to what one feels when they lose a loved one. I feel like I’m in mourning right now because not only did I lose something that goes a long way in making sure that I have something to eat at the end of the day, I also lost an instrument that I had grown to love over the years.

I really need it because I can’t use the keyboard all the time. I would use the keyboard one week and then the guitar the other week because if I stick to just one my shoulder joints would ache,” Taffi said.

A teary Taffi went on to narrate how he had lost his prized guitar on that fateful Saturday evening.

“As I usually do, I left at 6:30 pm for home. This was on Saturday. I usually leave my instruments with the guards that keep guard at Pioneer House and that is what I did on that day. Since there’s a bar upstairs he also goes upstairs to check if everything is in order once in a while. When he came back downstairs, that’s when he found out that the guitar had already been stolen. What’s sickening is that it looks like it was done by someone that had been watching and knew where the guitar would be hidden. Since I don’t come here on Sundays I only found out on Monday morning that I had lost my guitar,” he said.

However, after a public plea from members of the public and a local radio station, local maskandi musician, Zinjaziyamluma came to the rescue and donated a guitar to Taffi. The Sunday News