Macheso leaves fans asking for more

displays by the police, eight nail-biting horse races and, of course, music by the evergreen Police Band.
The band shrugged off the loss of their talismanic leader Inspector Promise Zvidande, who died in June this year, taking revellers down memory late with a catalogue of hits from yesteryear, such as The Bhundu Boys’ “Simbimbino”, Paul Mpofu’s “KwaMurambinda” with a dash of kwaito hits.
“Extrabasso” was among the stellar line-up of artistes at the Tourism Night held on Saturday night at Gwanzura Stadium but this did not stop him from giving a high-octane performance.
He put revellers in the mood with a gospel number in which he calls on the Lord Almighty to give him strength.
Judging by his performance thereafter God must have answered his prayer as he launched into “Tafadzwa”, a tribute to his second wife.
“Muriko here uko?” he bellowed out, and received the thunderous “Zora” response.
With the help of powerful PA system that appeared to be tailor-made for the Madawu hitmaker he had the revellers literally eating out of his hands as he belted out hit after hit.
The dancers, clad in yellow golf shirts and denim jeans, and led by the inimitable Majuice, were a delight to watch as they went through their well-choreographed dances.
If Sunday’s performance by Majuice is anything to go by, there is no doubt that he has fitted comfortably in the shoes left by his predecessor, Francis “Slomo” Dhaka.
But Majuice certainly faces stiff competition from members of the crowd who were invited onto the stage as the show wound down.
The highlight of the show was when the members of the Police Band joined Macheso to execute the “Officer” dance — executing the uniformed services mandatory salute to Macheso’s bass guitar and the drums.
The horse race is the Commissioner-General’s Welfare Fund’s main fund-raising event and set itself a target of US$200 000, double last year’s figure.
The Fund was established in 1996 to help towards the educational requirements as well as the general upkeep of the families of deceased members of the force drawn from all the provinces.
At present it caters for the orphans who are drawn from the 17 police provinces in the country that include the 10 geographical provinces, Police General Headquarters, Criminal Investigations Department, Depot, Police Protection Unit, Border Control and Minerals Unit and National Traffic.