Sungura musician steals Mashakada condolence money

Stocky sungura musician First Farai Batani pulled a SHOCKER at the late Cephas Mashakada's funeral wake after he stole condolence money he had been tasked to collect on behalf of the bereaved family.

The Hurudza Express band leader had volunteered to be the secretary while Hosiah Chipanga had been tasked to be the treasurer.

But a coup by the B ' rate singer saw him oust Chipanga as treasurer as he instead decided to both record and KEEP the money rather than hand it over to the kwachu-kwachu musician. Farai, the Mbanga Mbanga (scorcher) singer,  unleashed a better SCORCHER than his usual drab tracks when he is said to have opted to keep the money only for him to disappear before the burial of Mashakada after he pocketed $200 from the $500 he had collected.

First Farai could have gone around Chinhoyi where he hails from in the middle of the night to mix with peers. Farai's evil deeds were exposed by Hosiah Chipanga in his graveside speech. "Light and darkness do not mix," said Chipanga revealing Farai's theft from the lifeless corpse of Mashakada and his living dependents.

"As we bury our fellow musician Cephas today, my heart is bleeding after an evil act has been committed among us at this funeral." "I am not pleased and this must be exposed after I notified the Mashakada relatives about it." "Imagine, First Farai disappeared with the condolence money," said a tearful Chipanga.

Mourners also told H-Metro that Farai disappeared with the money shortly after his performance in the wee hours of Friday. Mashakada was supposed to be buried at 10am but he was buried at 2pm as his grave was being prepared. Chipanga told H-Metro that First Farai had portrayed a bad image among musicians.

Theft at a funeral by a musician as First Farai is definitely a FIRST and new ebb on how low anybody could have gone! "Our patron (Minister Webster Shamu) told us in Chitungwiza to be organised and Farai volunteered to be the secretary and it was suggested that I keep the money." "To my surprise, First Farai started pocketing the money and he disappeared with it," said Chipanga.

"We communicated this to Madzibaba Nicholas Zakaria that he hand over the money to me but he never gave me the money as the treasurer." "He left the place with the money and I confronted him here after we wanted to buy more food for men who were preparing the grave," added Chipanga.

Farai was emotional when H-Metro sought a comment from him.

"Ok you are the one from the paper that carried a bad story about Mashakada. "How do you operate you guys," said Farai. When further pressed to shed more light on whether he had stolen the money, Farai said: "I don't have a comment. Write what you want."

Chipanga, who was fuming that money could be stolen from a sombre occasion as a funeral said he did not mind having the rest of the world know what Farai did. "You can even quote me publicly," the musician said. The black hole in the finances was noticed when First Farai handed in the book in which condolence money was being receipted and a quick eyed person noticed that the figures did not tally and money was missing.

Word has it that continued pressure on First Farai a bloc of senior musicians saw him buckle to pressure and hand in the money but still $200 went unaccounted for. It took them more force than the terror flights of NATO on Libya to finally get First Farai to hand in whatever money he had.

Had it not been for the militaristic antics of 'General Chipanga' and his 'name and shame' crusade, First Farai's Tripoli would NOT have fallen and he still would have pocketed ALL the money, sources say. A bitter Chipanga, known for his whistle-blowing antics in the face of corruption, managed to save the day for the bereaved family. Speculation is that First Farai is always present at almost all funerals of musicians not only as a mourner but in light of the recent incident, funerals may have more value than a mere platform to say goodbye to a loved one!