Youthful trio spices up Charity Race

flavour to the day’s proceedings.
Dancehall veteran Sniper is aptly called ‘The General’ while Jah Prayzah is known for donning military outfits, on and off stage and Dendera exponent Sulu is a retired Air Force of Zimbabwe officer.
‘Mwana Wedangwe’, as Sulu is popularly known by his legion of fans, lit up the race course with an electrifying performance that would certainly have made his father, the late Simon ‘Chopper’ Chimbetu proud of his succes­sor.
The 30-year-old Orchestra Dendera Kings frontman took fans down memory lane with a string of his late father’s hits such as ‘Ndarangarira Gamba’, ‘Dzandipedza Mafuta’, ‘Samatenga’, ‘Haina Window’, ‘Dai Ndakadzidza’, ‘Nguva Yakaoma’ and ‘One Way’.
Sulu used the song ‘Ndarangarira Gamba’ to pay trib­ute to some of Zimbabwe’s late musicians such as Cephas Mashakada, Sam Mtukudzi, Tongai Moyo and the leg­endary ‘Chopper’.
Apart from his father’s hits, Sulu also had revellers dancing to his own discography that included ‘Kwedu’ as well as new tracks from his upcoming album.
Of course, no report on the Dendera Kings’ perform­ance would be complete without mentioning the antics of nimble-footed dancer, Francis ‘Slomo’ Dhaka.
The former Orchestra Mberikwazvo lead dancer brought the house down with his imitations of popular musicians from Hosiah Chipanga, Daiton Somanje, the late Tongai, his current boss Sulumani and former pay­master Alick Macheso.
Earlier in the day it was the talents of Sniper Storm that got the huge crowd into a party mood with his vibrant performance spiced up with hits with a military theme such as ‘Love Yemusoja’.
Then there was ‘MaNumber’ in which he urged his fans to respect the military and also emulate them in terms of discipline.
Referring indirectly to the story about rank marshals who assaulted ZNA members, Sniper warned members of the public against such criminal acts.
In ‘Musoja Haarohwe!’ he admonished the crowd to the thunderous applause of both the civilians and mili­tary that made up the bumper crowd.
The dancehall guru also had the crowd on its feet and hands in the air, waving with a mixture of his current hits ‘Empress’ and ‘Mob Psychology’ and yesteryear hits like ‘Kubhinya’, ‘Ndakabata Mic’ and ‘One Room’ that made him a household name.
Then it was time for the ‘Gochi Gochi’ hitmaker, who had the crowd singing and dancing along to his popular hits and as usual the ‘civilian soldier’ had a good day in office ahead of proposed tours of South Africa, Dubai and Australia.
The contemporary reggae artiste also took the oppor­tunity to introduce new recruit, Chris Oswell, a saxo­phonist from the UK.
For Sulu and Jah Prayzah, it was the second time in less than 24 hours that they were sharing the stage. On Satur­day afternoon they were the star performers at the Food World Live the Good Life Promotion draw in Africa Unity Square.