WE all love Kapfupi.
Freddy Manjalima, the actor-cum-musician has, for years, been the man who cracked our ribs with his comedy.
He is an icon in our entertainment industry.
This week, Kapfupi revealed that he has hit hard times.
He said he recently visited a local traditional healer, where he sought cleansing, because he believes he has some bad luck.
Kapfupi also told the country that he has nothing to show for the fame he gained, over the years, from his work as an artist.
He told our sister newspaper, Kwayedza, that all was not well in as far as his life was concerned and he was crying out for a helping hand.
“Things are not going well for and my family, nothing seems to be working for me, my wife Mai Ngaa or our son.
“I need some cleansing so that the bad luck goes away.
“I can’t hide behind my fame, I need help so that both my music and comedy can yield better results for me,” said Kapfupi.
His wife’s name is Precious Kabrito and she is also an entertainer.
Their son, only known as Dread, was also part of the family crew which visited a traditional healer.
It’s sad that Kapfupi and his family find themselves in such a situation where it’s become very difficult, according to the entertainer, to put food on their table.
Of course, this is a story we have read, again and again, when it comes to our artists and our sportspeople.
It is not only restricted to us here in Zimbabwe but it’s something which happens all over the world.
We have seen it with Azadus in Nigeria.
During his peak, he used to have some of the best cars money can but, including a Lincoln Navigator, but things then started going south for the musician.
And, soon, he had nothing.
He is not the only Nigerian artists who went bankrupt.
Eedris Abdul Kareem and Olu Mountain, to name but a few, also fell into this trap.
We have also seen it in South Africa, which has a bigger entertainment industry compared to ours.
Brenda Fasie, one of the continent’s best artists, also went bankrupt and the likes of Zola 7, Sophie Ndaba and Babe Wodumo found themselves, at one point or another, facing serious financial challenges.
Zahara, one of the finest musicians to emerge from South Africa, found herself on the verge of losing her house when she slipped into a similar financial quagmire.
However, Zahara found help, when she needed it the most, and she managed to save her property from going under the hammer.
We believe that this is what we should do as Zimbabweans.
For us to come together and find a way to help Kapfupi and his family to come out of the dark corner where they find themselves today.
We don’t believe they are victims of bad luck but we feel that this is part of the realities of life in this industry.
All they need is a helping hand.