Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu and Blessed Moyo, Sunday Life Reporters
LUNGILE “Cyclone Ree” Mathe has undergone many transformations in her life.
When Zimbabweans were introduced to her in 2011, she was vying for the Miss Tourism Zimbabwe crown, a contest in which she was eventually crowned Miss Personality.
Insiders in the world of beauty pageantry might say it was during that contest that Lungile Mathe died and Cyclone Ree, a whirlwind figure whose every controversial action seemed to shake the world of modelling, was born.
After several dramatic incidents that led to her dethronement from the pageant, Ree found herself in China, where she enrolled at a professional modelling school. While there, Ree went through another transformation, transitioning into a DJ. Now known as DJ Zero, she specialised in electro dance music (EDM), becoming one of that vast country’s few female black DJs.
In 2018, Ree announced that she had left the decks and was venturing into business, opening a beauty bar specialising mostly in hair supply. She would later return to Zimbabwe at the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
A few years after seemingly disappearing from the public eye, the model has announced what is perhaps her most dramatic transformation yet. After years of personal strife and struggle, which include controversial relationships and faltering businesses, Ree is now a sangoma, a profession far removed from the life she once lived as one of the country’s top models.
“What people don’t know about me is that when I was young, I had a prophetic gift,” she told Sunday Life in an interview.
“I was prophesying to people at Prophet Ngwenya’s Faith in Christ when I was a teenager. I didn’t understand where
I got this gift from, but as I grew older, I walked away from that life because I was living my life differently. I couldn’t live the life of a slay queen while doing all of that.”
Ree said for a long time, she had ignored her calling. She said failure to heed the call of her ancestors led to a series of unfortunate events in her life, which included sickness and ill-fated business ventures.
Throughout that time, she was also plagued by dreams that she could not understand.
“The journey to become a sangoma is not easy. I turned back a few times while on this journey. Then, one day, I had a dream in which I saw a boulder and a body of water. I told my father about it and he and my uncle took me to Njelele where I saw the same boulder and water. That is when my journey truly started,” she stated.
After a stint in Njelele, Ree said she had gone back to her old ways after she was told to attend an initiation school that dealt with the water spirit that she was possessed with.
“At that particular initiation school, things were hard. I didn’t know any peace. We would wake up at 2am to start our daily duties, which were tough and I decided that I just could not take it anymore and I ran away,” she said.
After taking another detour, the model said life got hard for her once again, with indications that the hardships she was suffering were a result of the training she had abandoned. Eventually, her calling became too loud for her to ignore.
She underwent training and initiation in 2020, graduating as a sangoma in 2021.
“My uncle, who is also a sangoma initiated me and the initiation process took about seven months,” she said.
Once she had accepted who she was, adapting to her new life has not been hard, Ree said.
“People might think it is odd, but many have accepted who I am now.
“You will get those that say, how can you be a Gogo (sangoma) when you’re so good-looking? I don’t mind it. When it is time for me to channel the ancestors, I am no longer Cyclone Ree but a vessel for the spirits,” she said.
Despite her initiation, Ree said she had not completely abandoned modelling.
“The blessings that I received while I was on the ramp came from the ancestors. These were royal blessings, and that’s why I became a beauty queen. It was never about me but the blessings that the ancestors bestowed upon me and I believe that should I return to the ramp, the ancestors would give me the same blessings again,” she said.
Although she has found a new path in life, Ree confesses that she has some regrets about the life she led in the past. A romantic relationship with a married man, resulting in the birth of her daughter in 2022, ranks high among some of the things that she wishes she could undo if she could go back in time.
The former beauty queen admits to struggling with motherhood and financial instability, leading her to start gambling while pursuing fruitless business ventures. Ree said that she regrets spending her money recklessly when she was one of the country’s top models.
In her prime, she revealed that she would spend as long as a month in hotels with her friends, covering her monthly bills.
“Only if I had someone to speak sense to me and or even mentor me during that time, I could have bought a house or even started a business that could still be in existence even now,” she said ruefully.
Despite regrets over past reckless spending, Ree is determined to rebuild her life, embracing a healthier lifestyle as she considers a return to modelling. She believes that as she goes forward, she can balance life on the ramp and her spiritual calling.
“I jog almost four kilometres every day to try to keep my body in shape as I’m planning to return to modelling,” she said.
