26 years later… music legend John Chibadura gets befitting tombstone
HARARE – The late Zimbabwe music legend John Chibadura will soon have a lavish tombstone, which will represent his musical journey and possibly keep his legacy alive, 26 years after he died.
Chibadura died at the age of 42 on 4 August 1999.
A Harare-based monumental mason Tendai Mbofana of Ngoda Granites partnered with Journalist Hopewell Chin’ono who had offered to pay for Chibadura’s tombstone.
According to Chin’ono, Mbofana later refused to accept any payment for the making of the tombstone.
He wrote, “I offered to pay for a new tombstone to restore the dignity of a man who gave us so much joy through his music. Tendai came forward and said to me ‘Daddy Hope you have done a lot for our country allow us to play our part in our own way….
“What moved me deeply is that Tendai refused to take a single cent. He said he wanted to do this as his way of saying thank you to John Chibadura on behalf of all Zimbabweans.”
Mbofana also confirmed this to Nehanda Radio that he did this out of goodwill and would not accept a single penny from anyone. He also stated that the tombstone will cost $5000
“I am doing all this from the bottom of my heart. We won’t make the family pay. The tombstone we are putting is likely to cost at least $5000. I believe it’s worth it for him,” said Mbofana.
The thought to renovate Chibadura’s grave came after Mbofana saw pictures being circulated online showing the sorrowful state of the singer’s grave.
“After I saw those pictures on social media, I was really touched. How can we go on like this as a country trampling on the legacy of our own musicians? These musicians shared their talents with us. We can’t watch people talking bad about our legends,” Mbofana told Nehanda Radio.
Mbofana, through his company Ngoda Granites, has been doing this charitable service of installing tombstones for late musicians and actors.
Though not talked about much, he revealed that his company was in charge of installing tombstones of musical giants such as Cde Chinx, Paul Matavire, with the help of Drewmas Media and Soul Jah Love.
“The first tombstone we did for free was for Cde Chinx. After that, we did for Paul Matavire in partnership with Drewmas Media. We also did for Soul Jah Love, I really loved Soul Jah Love his tombstone was worth $9000,” he said.
“We are also going to be putting a tombstone on actress Mai Rwizi who used to act with Mukadota. We have taken it upon ourselves that every year, we give out to our community at least three tombstones to prominent community leaders or heroes of our day,” Mbofana added.
