Chronicle Editor
Bongani Ndlovu, Showbiz Reporter
TOP comedian Clive Chigubu (31) whose talent was unmatched in many respects was buried yesterday at Umvutsha Cemetery in Bulawayo following his death last week on Wednesday.
Chigubu succumbed to Diffuse Large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL), a type of cancer which had left him bedridden.
Before burial, a service was held at his family home in Barbourfields suburb on a chilly morning.
Reports indicate that the Bulawayo City Council (BCC) turned down a request for Chigubu to be buried at Lady Stanley Cemetery which is reserved for luminaries in the city.
They also barred the holding of the memorial service at the Bulawayo Amphitheatre.
Chigubu’s coffin had to be placed on the street outside his family house in Barbourfields, with the memorial service being held in the middle of the road due to the large numbers that turned up to bid farewell to the award-winning comedian and entertainer.
The road that passes through Chigubu’s home was blocked off so that people could follow the service.
Artistes such as Ntando Van Moyo, Nomsa MissDee Muleya, Mandla Da Comedian, Doc Vikela, Gonyeti, Babongile Sikhonjwa, Khedha, Sikhanyiso and the like were also in attendance.
They spoke highly of Chigubu saying he was one of the people who inspired them to start off comedy.
National Arts Council of Zimbabwe (NACZ) Director Nicholas Moyo, Bulawayo deputy Mayor Councillor Mlandu Ncube, ward eight Councillor Edwin Ndlovu and NACZ provincial arts manager Cleopatra Dube also came to pay their respects.
Sikhonjwa did not mince his words saying council should be ashamed because of the way it views artistes.
“We asked for Clive’s funeral service to be held at Amphitheatre and you refused, but it’s okay.
What’s so difficult that Clive Chigubu is put at Lady Stanley and becomes hero for the city at 31 so that other artistes can learn to work hard like him. But you are going to tell us that he is too young to be buried at Lady Stanley, why. Shame on you,” said Sikhonjwa.
“We pay rates at the City Council, and we have the one guy, who made all of us laugh in the city and made us all happy and you treat us like sh**.
May the next artiste who dies, I challenge the City Council and deputy mayor to approach us and say this is what we are doing for you.”
Sikhonjwa said Chigubu was a national treasure.
“Just to name a road after Cal_Vin (late hip-hop artiste) what do we need to do?
This road to be called Clive Chigubu, what is so difficult to name this one that passes through his house after him,” said Sikhonjwa.
“People from Harare travelled to come to respect Clive Chigubu, but our own City fathers here.
If it is true that Bulawayo is the hub of the arts in Zimbabwe, the Bulawayo City Council must be the first people to show people for real we are the hub of arts; by showing the whole nation that we can name streets after artistes or even stadiums,” he said.
Umahlekisa Comedy Club founder Ntando Van Moyo, who worked closely with Chigubu said his death had robbed the industry of a gem.
“We knew that when we wanted people to come for the show and in their numbers, we would put Clive as the headline act and he would close the show.
For many people to know us as comedians, it was because of Clive,” said the comedian.
He said they should have never listened to Chigubu who did not want the world to know about his illness.
“We regret respecting Clive’s wishes for us not to tell people how ill he was.
We should have told everyone and sought out help and then after that perhaps he would be still alive but angry at us.
We would like to challenge companies and politicians; Let’s not come to artistes’ funerals and seek clout. We come to your offices and ask for partnerships and they don’t give us an ear. We did it with Clive,” said Van Moyo.
Simuka Comedy’s Doc Vikela said Chigubu will be missed, a comedian with unmatched talent.
“I know something about Chigubu, he’s a legend, he’ll remain a legend. Clive Chigubu and I will say that there’s no comedian who’d want to perform after this legend, lying here,” said Doc Vikela.
“He is and still remains as the only real comedian we can ever have as Zimbabweans. I’d like to thank his mother for grooming a respectful young man.
Clive had a heart and we would go on tours around the country and we wouldn’t be paid and he would not fight the promoters.”
Doc Vikela said most artistes and especially comedians do not have anything to show for all their fame because people do not put value in entertainment.
Chigubu’s wife, Gugulethu Ncube, the mother of his child Makhosazana said she had lost a soulmate.
“Clive was a wonderful man.
Throughout my pregnancy I never ever one day lacked anything. I was the envy of his life and everything to him.
Even when he was sick, his mother would complain and say Clive spends the day quiet, but when I come to see him, he’d start talking,” said Ncube.
“He was crazy, but I loved him like that.
He would go out for drinks with Babongile at around 12 midnight he would pass by the family home in Pelandaba and say, I just wanted to see you and then go home.
That’s the kind of man I had.”
Ncube said Chigubu was a great father and his daughter was the splitting image of him.
“When I gave birth to Makhosazana, that was the happiest day of his life.
He said to me I never had a dad, but I’m sure with you helping me we can raise this girl together.
And Makho has always been daddy’s girl from day one and what hurts me the most is that she has her father’s character and she makes jokes out of anything like her dad.
I just hope his legacy will live through her.
She knows that he loves her with all his heart,” said Ncube.
NACZ director Moyo said artistes should unite.
“Let’s unite and make a difference about our lives.
There are too many challenges about health among the sector, and we need to talk about health issues.
At times we should tell those close to us and it was only though an article in the paper, I was told that Clive was ill. We should be able to help each other as a sector so that we don’t have to be people who depend on begging bowls,” said Moyo.
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