adminand off the stage.
Those in the know, will attest that his dressing on and off the stage, matched not only his affability, but also his determination to maintain a high degree of excellence in everything that he did.
So determined was he to leave a trail of success and make a retirement plan for himself and his family, that he stretched his business tentacles and launched a clothing brand, in addition to a farm, and a retail shop that was in his rural area of Zhombe.
The need to consolidate his brand, became more necessary than before when he was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, after it dawned on him that he needed to save something for a rainy day.
During one of the many interviews I had with him, he admitted poignantly that his performance days were numbered, and he wanted to work on his retirement package.
I first met Dhewa in 2009, two years after my transfer to head the Arts and Entertainment section of this newspaper.
Although I had attended several of his shows, I had never really bothered to interview him and would normally review his live shows, without adding his voice.
I considered that to be adequate.
After all don’t we all say that there nothing is better that writing a story, based on participatory observation?
Then, I felt I had no reason to interview him on his performances of stage, since I would have spent the whole night, watch him on stage, intermittently dancing along, and interacting with his fans.
So when he decided to make a courtesy call at the office, I was a bit taken aback, but I was also profoundly surprised that beneath those well toned-muscles lay a fragile, humble and an assuming person, who was only happy to market his brand.
Although the meeting took less than 10 minutes, it gave me an insight into his larger-than-life character, the vision he had for his brand and naturally his passion for music.
He was passionate about his promoting, marketing and defending his brand that he was always a phone call away if one wanted an interview for a story.
And without any doubt, the speed would often be more haste than before, if he had to defend his music and the “scandals” in his personal life.
Despite a barrage of negative stories that were often in the media about his personal life, he still continued to give interviews, in a bid to maintain good relations with the media.
We had a good working relationship that entailed phoning each other regularly to discuss developments in the arts industry and occasionally about his health.
He was always forthcoming about his condition, so much that when I phoned him on September 7, inquiring about his health following a flurry of articles about his deteriorating condition, he immediately revealed that he had developed a brain tumour.
The development was rather devastating, not to me alone, but also to the media fraternity, and his legions of fans, who kept on hoping that his condition would improve.
I sat down to write the story with a heavy heart.
While I would have wished to keep the information to myself I realised that I ran the risk of being “scooped” by other journalists, who also had good relations with him, if not better.
That revelation about the brain tumour marked the beginning of serious other complications that eventually resulted in his death.
Throughout his trials and tribulations as he battled with cancer, and a host of other complications his hopes for recovering never faltered.
He had a fighting spirit.
Go well Mopao Mokonzi
Sidumisile Mabena