IT’S OUR JOB, WE HAVE NO APOLOGY TO MAKE

BUSINESSMAN Kudzai Keita was buried at his rural home in Chihota yesterday.

His profile shows that he was the director at Sisonke Holdings and he died in an accident in Harare on Tuesday morning.

His mother also died in the same tragedy while his wife, social media star Lonlisha, was badly injured in the crash.

Kudzi lived the good life of luxury cars and beautiful houses and he paraded his “wealth” on social media — the big and expensive cars and all the trappings of riches.

He celebrated the fact that he was rich and he wanted all of us to see the fruits of his achievements.

We have no problem with that.

But,what that means is that it attracts the spotlight on someone and some questions start to be asked. We have been asking some of the questions and while some people might not agree with us, we believe we have a right to do that.

That is our job – to ask some tough questions and come up with the answers.

That’s why we asked in our story yesterday – what did he really do in his life to acquire all that wealth?

We revealed that some are saying that he was a diamond dealer and he is well known in that business.

They said he was a key figure in the diamonds industry both in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Some are saying that some of his dealings were questionable and they say he also used another name — Edward Takaendesa.

They said he also went by the name Okolo, a Nigerian name.

Why Kudzi used all these different names we will never know but, as the media, we believe it is within our rights to highlight that and ask the questions.

The reality of all this is that if Kudzi lived his life in the shadows, instead of the limelight, there would not have been an appetite to check what he used to do in his life.

But, once he decided to thrust himself into the spotlight, he should have known that questions will be asked around all his flashy cars and beautiful houses.

We have a heart and we also understand that, when tragedy hits, we have to give the grieving family space to mourn their beloved ones.

But, we have to balance that with our major responsibility to ensure that all the questions, which our readers would be asking, are addressed.

The New York Times didn’t stop reporting that the leaders of the Five Mafia Families of New York were running criminal enterprises when they died.

The iconic newspaper reported what these guys were doing in their life and that included chronicling all the hits they sanctioned, all the people they murdered, all the money they stole and stuff like that.

It comes with the terrain.

We haven’t accused Kudzi of anything but we have just highlighted that there were some gaps which need to be explained in his life. We have no apologies for doing that.