Wenslus Murape
Robson Sharuko, Editor
WE can only imagine!
It would have been the biggest all-white party of them all because this would have been very, very special.
After all, the King of Bling, would have been celebrating his 40th birthday and, if you believe the hype, that is the year when life is supposed to start.
And, this would have been his 20th all-white party because it’s very likely he would have been forced to skip the one in 2021, because of Covid-19 restrictions.
Genius Kadungure, widely known as Ginimbi, would have celebrated his 40th birthday yesterday.
He was born on October 10, 1984.
But Ginimbi never made it to 40 after his death, when his Rolls Royce crashed and turned into a fireball, in Harare on November 8, 2020.
Four years after his death, his legacy lives on and it’s fair to say that no one has come anywhere closer to matching him as a socialite, both in terms or profile and how he lived in the fast lane of bling.
Such was his profile that his death even appeared on BBC, was covered widely by the South African media and captured the attention of Agence France Presse, one of the leading news agencies in the world.
Some of his friends insisted they would continue with the tradition of his all-white parties but it became clear, in the first two years after his death, that this was just pup talk.
Without the main actor, himself, the music died and, to be fair to his friend, it would have been a very big yawn.
His sister, Wanisai “Mahwindo” Mutandwa remembered the brother she lost and that it would have been his birthday yesterday.
“Even though I am still in denial, please allow me to celebrate you today,” she wrote on her social media platforms, attaching a photograph when they were together.
“Happy birthday my partner in crime Ginimbi. I will forever love you my brother.”
His last all-white party was held just a month before he died in that horror car crash.
It was held at his county mansion in Domboshava as if he was sending a message that he was coming home for good.
Our sister newspaper, The Herald, revealed that guests were invited a month before the event, giving them much time to prepare on what to wear — which was a headache for many.
Getting the invite alone, the newspaper reported, was a privilege.
Of course, expensive alcohol flowed and there was plenty of food for the guests and there was an assembly of posh cars to provide a befitting background to the grand occasion.
Records showed that before he died, Ginimbi had hosted 17 all-white parties.
In the early years of these parties, they were just local stuff.
But, with time, they were taken around the region and were held in places like Botswana, South Africa and even in Dubai.
In the first years, the parties were held in Harare but as his popularity and profile exploded, Ginimbi took his parties to places like Gaborone, Dubai and South Africa.
No one knows what would have been happening today if Ginimbi was still alive.
But, it’s probably fair to believe that there would have been a grand 40th all-white party which would have been held outside the country.
However, it’s also important to note that such extravagant parties have lost a part of their appeal, especially in recent months, after the arrest of American hip hop mogul Sean Combs on sex trafficking charges.
Known around the world as P. Diddy, Combs popularised these parties and used to invite the world’s biggest celebrities to have fun with him.
The indictments have since shown that there was a darker side to Diddy’s parties, even though he dismisses the allegations which have been piled up against him.
Now, and again, entertainment journalists who were covering Ginimbi’s all-white parties used to compare them with Diddy’s parties and he didn’t appear to have any issues about such comparisons.
It’s fair to say that there was no need for him to have had any reservations back then because we all didn’t know the darker side of Diddy’s parties.
The good thing, too, is that four years after his death, we haven’t heard any hint that there were some bad things which used to happen at Ginimbi’s parties.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter