Funeral party for Mutare DJ

Ray Bande
Senior Reporter

GREAT playwright, William Shakespeare said, the evil that man does live after them, and the good is often interred with their bones.

This was the case for a Mutare entertainer, DJ Slammer whose recent funeral in Zimta Park suburb was the reincarnation of Sodom and Gomorrah.

With sex workers, not only openly transacting on the sidelines, but also twerking the night away to the blaring sound of speakers on full blast, while sloshed youths abusing all types of drugs and alcohol, DJ Slammer’s funeral wake was an abridged three-day version of the life he lived in different night clubs and beer halls he worked first as a Zimdancehall artiste, and later on the turntables.

Born Valentine Ncube, DJ Slammer died at the age of 29 last week on Tuesday, and was laid to rest at Dangamvura Cemetery last week on Friday.

However, events on the night before his burial, and on the day of his burial were nowhere near the usual sombre, and sacrosanct atmosphere attached to funerals.

It was just a funeral party for these youths!

Read on . . .

Cause of death

No-one seems to have a clue of what caused DJ Slammer’s death.

Those who casually knew him and were also in attendance during the funeral had their own explanation.

 

 

His friends had theirs.

 

His family, too, had a different account.

Even though the post mortem report suggested that DJ Slammer died of alcohol intoxication, there is a school of thought that says he succumbed to food poisoning.

“We were made to understand that a day before he fell ill, he was involved in a love triangle dispute involving two women. It appears that the other woman was bitter, for whatever reason, and she went on to spike his drink. He badly vomited before proceeding home that day. We believe this resulted in his death,” said John Magebe, an imbiber who usually frequents beer outlets at Acid Shops.

DJ Slammer’s mother, Florence Ncube said: “We gathered through the post mortem report that he died of alcohol intoxication. Nothing more, nothing less! We are not aware of any events that could have led to his death apart from what we were informed at the hospital. If indeed there is anything fishy, the truth will come out.”

Be that as it may, there are some who are convinced that his death had something to do with injuries he sustained after a violent attack about three months ago.

His close friend, Tesco Chikonzo, better known in local entertainment circles as DJ Tribe, said: “From the way he died, we have more questions than answers. Personally, I still feel that the injuries he sustained after he was viciously attacked in July caused his death. He must have sustained some internal injuries.”

The partying

No doubt, there are things that DJ Slammer could have done better in his private life and these badly reflected during his funeral wake.

‘Mourners’, comprising mostly youths from surrounding Bernwin, Zimta Park and Chikanga suburbs thronged the late entertainers’ home in their numbers last Thursday night.

Neighbours could hardly sleep as speakers were on full blast with fellow disc jockeys taking turns to bid farewell to their colleague in a way they used to live.

Sex workers were not to outdone.

Suggestive dances that one could be forgiven to think that they were at some open air gig were the hallmark of the vigil.

Smoke, not only from the fire that was lit to warm mourners throughout the night, but also from marijuana and cigarettes billowed into thin air as funeral attendees relived moments spent with the late wheel spinner.

 

Those without beer bottles in their hands were much, much fewer than pleasure seekers who turned the funeral wake into a free open air gig.

Condoms were not only blown for fun, but were actually used by sex workers and their clients on the sidelines of the funeral wake.

Such were the depths of moral decadence on display.

Breach of funeral protocols

Mourners who attended the funeral least expected that DJ Slammer’s body would come straight from the mortuary, just pass through his home on the same day straight to the graveyard.

Just like all other decent funeral procedures, they expected the body to lay in state at his home before burial the next day.

That was not to be with DJ Slammer’s funeral.

 

The hearse arrived at his Zimta Park home around midday and it was not long before the body was offloaded from the vehicle about three hundred metres from the destination.

All hell broke loose!

Songs in unprintable words were chanted, while sexually suggestive dances prevailed all over the place.

 

The Salvation Army Church congregants who presided over the funeral rites had a torrid time to bring the house to order.

Intermittently, ‘ghetto youths’ would break into song and dance.

Body viewing was done at his home as well as on his grave just before being lowered into the grave as his friends demanded to see him for the last time.

On the way to the graveyard, the hearse had a brief stopover at Acid Shops where luckily doors to One Love Bar were closed as youths wanted to take the body into the bar.

 

They proceeded to Rio Nite Club at Chikanga TM Shops where they forced their way and wantonly destroyed furniture before the hearse drove to Dangamvura Cemetery.

Wheel spinners on death row

DJ Slammers’s death comes hard on the heels of the death of his manager, Carlington Marapi, better known as Calif in local entertainment circles.

Calif collapsed and died on his way from Murehwa to Mutare.

As if that was enough, tears have barely dried on the cheeks of many in the entertainment industry in Mutare after 21-year-old Blessing Manando’s body was recently found along a footpath linking Area 13 and Area 3 in the sprawling suburb of Dangamvura.