Online Reporter
Tafadzwa Zimoyo
Zimpapers Entertainment Editor
The gospel music calendar may still be having a few shows scheduled before the year bows out, but judging by scenes at the Harare International Convention Centre on Saturday, one event felt like a finish line.
It was not just a full house, it felt historic.
Grateful Experience, the collaborative worship movement born from a simple idea of unity, delivered a finale so emotional, intergenerational, and culturally charged that it seemed to answer a question that has lingered all year: Has Zimbabwean gospel ever closed a calendar this beautifully?
Celestial on December 31 still awaits, but Saturday’s gathering was, for many, the high watermark of the year.
Few names carry the gravity needed for such a moment. Dr Rebecca Malope and Sipho “Big Fish” Makhabane are not guest performers; they are chapters of Southern Africa’s spiritual memory. For many Zimbabweans, Malope had not performed on home soil since the late 1990s, making her return a rare homecoming.
As they stepped onto the HICC stage, what followed was not nostalgia, it was reckoning.
A generation that once filled crusade halls, bought cassettes wrapped in cardboard sleeves, and held hands through loss and prayer met its heroes again: grown, softened, but still ready to sing. The old arrived early, dressed like a Sunday morning.
The young, in sneakers and denim, filled the aisles too, filming the moment with the awareness that they were witnessing something larger than a show.
But the energy belonged to the elders, the ones who built their faith around voices that travelled across borders long before social media.
The moment Malope performed “Njalo,” time folded. Her voice bright, urgent, textured with decades of testimony, and the crowd rose back.
Thousands sang the refrain like survival, not entertainment.
Malope did not perform the song; she surrendered it.
It was not a set opener.
It was homecoming.
Makhabane’s offering, “Over and Over”, landed not as a hit, but as a memory restored.
Slow, breathy and full of the gravitas he is known for, he let the track build like a sermon sung.
When he stepped back and held the microphone toward the audience, the HICC became a choir of lived experience.
The elders swayed with the authority of people who have sung through the hardest parts of life.
When the final note dissolved, they shouted for more with the confidence of those who know the music belongs to them.
That emotional peak had been carefully prepared by the Grateful Experience cast, a constellation of Zimbabwe’s worship leaders operating as a single ecosystem.
UK-based Zimbabwean Eleana Makombe, the architect of the brand, led the charge with a generosity of stagecraft rarely seen in local concerts. This was not a sequence of performances; it was a relay of spirit.
Takesure Zamar floated through harmonies with the ease of a man who has spent a decade shaping modern gospel sound.
Minister Michael Mahendere drove the tempo into celebration mode. Nyasha Mutonhori, The Cherayis, and Blessing Jedthun carried the crowd through favourites, passing the baton with almost athletic synchronicity.
It was, as one audience member joked, “Coachella for worshippers”, that festival-like rush, but with scripture in the arrangements instead of smoke machines.
The surprise voices of the night, were Worshipper Larry Gunda (Zimbabwe) and Tlotlo from Botswana, cutting cleanly through a stage already warmed by giants.
Confident, rich, textured and immediately embraced by the crowd, he showcased how Grateful Experience bridges generations without losing sight of its gospel roots.
The night’s generosity spilled beyond music. One fan, Farai Mugwambi of Riddle Ridge, walked away with a Toyota Aqua, gifted by John Makombe on his 40th birthday, a milestone he marked through giving, not receiving.
Later, Tap & Go CEO Dr Paul Tungwarara’s daughter, Tinotenda, presented Eleana Makombe with an iPhone 17 Pro Max, while 10 lucky fans were given free rides home as the venue emptied. These moments could have felt like spectacle, but within the context of worship, they became extensions of testimony generosity.
The evening was underscored by civic and institutional recognition. Minister of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Monica Mutsvangwa attended with her family, joining pastors, bishops, creatives, and promoters from across the region.
Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume provided the city’s endorsement, while the Zimbabwe Tourism Authority, under its Experience Zimbabwe mantra, positioned the event as a national cultural and tourism asset.
In a symbolic gesture, ZTA gifted Malope and Makhabane the national fabric, reinforcing the night’s cross-border and cultural significance.
Malope reflected before leaving: “I have sung across the world, but Zimbabwe does not sing – it roars from the heart. Thank you for coming in your numbers, for reminding us that gospel is not a trend. It is a life-style.” Makhabane added: “This place is home. You gave us back our songs tonight. Over and over again.”
Outside the venue, older attendees shared their own reflections. Amai Rina, who last saw Malope in 1999 at a crusade inside the Zimbabwe Grounds, said, “I thought I would never see her again. Tonight reminded me that nothing is ever lost when songs are prayers.”
Beside her, Gogo Vongai whispered, “We sang these songs when life was heavy. Hearing them again is like hearing God remember.”
A key pillar behind the night’s seamless flow was stage director Rumbidzai Matinanga, whose work stitched the performance together with invisible mastery.
