EDITOR – I AM deeply concerned about the future of our talented local musicians who are rushing to some Pentecostal churches to seek the services of these mushrooming prophets.
In fact it seems as if these musicians go to these prophets when they fall on hard times.
The likes of Isaac Chirwa, Allan Chimbetu, Nicholas Zakaria, Leonard Zhakata and others are now full time congregants of these churches, particularly Prophet Walter Magaya’s PHD Ministries and Emmanuel Makandiwa’s UFI .
Funny enough, Zhakata has even assumed the title of Pastor Leonard Zhakata, (heaven knows where he trained and when).
I heard through the grapevine that renowned sungura maestro, Alick Macheso might be headed to join one of these Pentecostal churches after failing to record his album for the past two years due to monetary problems which are haunting his band.
I hate to believe that as was the case with pole dancer Beverly ‘Bev’ Sibanda, the money that the prophets give to these artistes is the congregants’ hard-earned cash which they pour on these prophets.
My personal opinion is that the prophets or rather motivational speakers only want to use the prominent musicians to spruce up their images so that they get more people at their respective churches which means more money to them.
To some extent I believe that these musicians will also be short-changing their fans, particularly when their so-called new denominations affect the contents of their music.
Please note I have nothing against some of these musicians converting to Christianity, but I hope they understand what it implies.
The only surviving member of Kassongo Band, Knowledge Kunenyati quit music completely after joining ZAOGA as a pastor and David Mabvuramiti also left secular music.
As I see it, these prophets are cultivating the spirit of laziness in local artistes who are now resorting to few shows as they inevitably get quick bucks from the prophets.
Seasoned musicians like Oliver Mtukudzi have beaten hard times by working hard until they struck the correct chord in the industry.
Now if you see a young man like Tocky Vibes performing at Magaya’s gatherings, singing ‘Magaya waenda nenyika’ and the congregation going wild, then obviously you tend to wonder kuti, what’s really going on?
And when we hear that Sulumani Chimbetu will be performing at Magaya’s church, then we also tend to wonder kuti ndiani munhu arikuda kubatwa apa?
I wouldn’t be surprised kuti some of the people at these huge gatherings comprised of ‘thousands’ vanenge vakadhakwa singing along to Tocky Vibes performing ‘all in the name of the Lord’ with ‘Papa’ alongside.
Pangatadze kufa vanhu ipapa?
I hate to say this, but very soon we might just be left with mediocre artistes.

Regai Tione
Harare