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Lusanda Mcinga and the Lusanda Spiritual Group perform in Gwanda on Friday evening

Vusumuzi Dube Showbiz Correspondent
THE Gwanda gospel jamboree which featured top South African musicians and was held at Pelandaba Stadium at the weekend, was a show of firsts and rarities.

It is not every day that a show of that magnitude, drawing a huge contingent of decorated artistes is held in a town as small as Gwanda.

Not too often would one expect such a show to be free of charge.

Seldom have music fans imagined artistes such as house musician, Bucie from the Heavy K fame and Stoan Seattle from Bongo Muffin, leading a praise and worship team.

But on the night, Gwanda played host to a first gospel show of its kind when the two artistes abandoned secular music to sing praises to the creator.

While most locals can only imagine the stage used by Eminem during his performance in South Africa, the same stage used for the Nelson Mandela tribute concert, Gwanda folks had the rare opportunity of having the state-of-the-art stage mounted in their backyard for the gospel show.

Another first in the small mining town were fireworks which illuminated the dark skies, reminiscent of the imagery often used to illustrate the coming of the Holy Spirit.

So extraordinary was the jamboree that it even attracted royalty to Gwanda.

King Bungane III of the royal kingdom of Embo, Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini’s Daughter Princess Nomkhosi and Chief Zwide kaLanga were part of the gospel fiesta.

Justice would not have been done to the show’s rarities and firsts without mentioning the R1million VVIP glass enclosure mounted at the show venue, complete with air-conditioning, leaving many-a-folk in Gwanda awestruck.

With everyone else talking about the Toni Braxton, Babyface and Davido shows in Harare and the Dan Tshanda show in Bulawayo, the people in Gwanda had their own world class gig.

Although people yearned for the soulful music of Rebecca Malope who was in a no show, the other artistes gave a good account of themselves.

Even non-church goers and well-known imbibers in the small town had to temporarily give up their drinking habits to feel the soothing gospel melodies.

It was certainly not a show any music fan worth his or her salt would have wanted to miss, regardless of one’s religion.

No doubt the gospel jamboree was the centre of attraction and therefore most people thronged Pelandaba Stadium, dealing a major blow to local entertainment spots.

The financer of the show, South Africa-based businessman Justice Maphosa said this was just the beginning of more things to come for the Gwanda community.