FOR the past week, the local media has been awash with the Mathias Mhere, Susan Dzinamarira and Gift Mahlupeka saga.
A leaked WhatsApp conversation between Mhere’s wife Susan Dzinamarira and best friend Mahlupeka suggested an illicit love affair between the two.
The duo was said to have been engaged in a relationship in which it is not clear whether they were intimate or not.
As expected in such situations, many fans and sympathisers of Mhere expected him to divorce his ‘promiscuous’ wife, but the gospel musician shocked people when he ‘forgave’ his wife a day after the WhatsApp conversation was published in a local newspaper.
Many people began to question whether the allegations labelled against Mahlupeka were true.
However, Mhere’s career is fraught with incidences or rather controversies that forced many to take the allegations with the proverbial pinch of salt.
Pundits contend that the whole drama was stage-managed to push sales of Mhere’s new album, Glory to Glory.
But is this what the arts industry has degenerated into?
It’s common knowledge that the local arts industry is in a dog-eat-dog state, but levels that artistes are stooping to leave a lot to be desired.
While it is common in the West to use scandals to propel careers, in Africa, we have tried to keep our values in all our transactions, social or business.
In the West there is no bad publicity, just publicity.
As long as ones’ name circulates in the media and the various social platforms, an artiste is happy.
But is that who we are?
For instance, the Mhere case leaves a lot to be desired, morally and socially.
The decision by the artiste might boost album sales, but it has a negative impact on many others, especially those closely related to the artiste and his wife.
For example, the couple has a school going child who obviously got to get a lot of unnecessary attention and scrutiny as the ‘son of the mother who cheated’.
Mhere’s wife, had the antic succeeded, would go around branded a harlot.
And that she does not mind as long as the money is coming in is very disturbing.
To be willing to carry a stain for life for the sake of pushing an album is definitely not a high, but a low.
For Mhere to be willing to move on with life as a cuckold for the sake of album sales is equally disturbing.
Is talent not sufficient?
Mhere has been touted as one of the brightest stars in the gospel galaxy, but this latest stunt from him raises questions.
It appears the musician no longer has confidence in his music that is if he ever believed in his talent because from his debut, he courted controversy.
It is not known for a fact whether he was working in cahoots with the pirates that sold his music under the name of prolific gospel artiste Blessing Shumba, but he thrived as a result of the ‘mix-up’.
His it seems, is a case of massive self-doubt, a situation where the artiste does not believe Mathias Mhere cannot sell on his own.
For a musician who has been in the game and limelight since 2011, he must by now have better and credible marketing strategies.
One will be forgiven for believing that Mhere is not in the genre to spread the message of salvation, but is in it purely for the money.
Maybe the artiste is still haunted by his monumental flop on his first attempt into the music industry in 2007, when he failed to penetrate the market with his first album Tinoda Nyasha.
The album was poorly marketed and failed to survive, it fast disappeared from the scenes.
Mhere then came back with Anoita Munana (2011) which put him in the spotlight with songs such as ‘Favour’, ‘Areka’ and ‘Vimba na Jehovha’, but under the name of the popular Blessing Shumba.
Although Mhere cannot be blamed for piracy and the branding of pirated works, it cannot be entirely dismissed tha the might have plotted such gimmick considering the measures he is willing to take to promote his music.
Soon after the release of Anoita Munana, Mhere again made headlines accused for breaking copyright law by recording a song ‘Favour’ previously recorded by Kudakwashe Kunyavapa.
Mhere’s popular song ‘Favour’ was said to be imitation of Kunyavapa track titled ‘Ndakaiona’ from a 2010 album titled Favour.
The two musicians both recorded the identical songs at Lyt-On House Studio with the same producer, Lyton Ngolomi.
Mhere’s latest album Glory to Glory was launched two days before the WhatsApp saga between Mahlupeka and Dzinamira were published.
In one of the songs on the album Mhere talks about the importance of forgiving a wife who would have cheated.
And Mhere’s wife when the ‘scandal’ broke out was quick to ask for ‘forgiveness’and Mhere was swift to ‘forgive’.
Whatever the case is, Mhere’s latest album has received high sales, but at what cost?
Is the love of money not the root of all evil?