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Bruce Ndlovu, Showbiz Correspondent
Since his sudden demise a fortnight ago, Joe Mafela’s life and death has been the subject on fans and admirers’ lips as they mull over the achievements of a showbiz titan that epitomised artistic excellence down to the moment he met his end on 18 March.

On that day when Mafela drew his last, not on stage as lovers of fairytale endings would have wished, but behind the wheel of a Ford Figo on the M1 north of Johannesburg, his death immediately cast a dark and depressing shadow. This shadow loomed as large as the much more joyful and positive one that his life and career had cast before the mechanical beast he was driving took him to a destination he would not have wished upon when he got behind the wheel of his car on that fateful Saturday.

Since his death, his praises have come from all over. However, it was his family’s gesture this week that drove home the point of how highly regarded Mafela was.

Mafela’s tombstone, a marble replica of a living room complete with a plasma TV, coffee table, TV stand and couch was as spectacular as the larger than life characters Mafela usually portrayed.

To some, the tombstone, which the makers Bataung Memorial Tombstone’s CEO Lebohang Khitsane said took over three days to make and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, was nothing more than showy opulence. To others, however, it gave the impression that Mafela’s family, after all his years of toil in the world of showbiz, was so well off that they could give him a glamorous sendoff to the afterlife.

In the same week that Mafela’s marble monster was unveiled, north of the Limpopo, Zimbabweans were also mulling the legacy of one of their own icons years after his death. Our sister paper The Herald revealed that Leonard Dembo’s mother was wallowing in poverty, unable to even to put together the money to buy a radio that could serve as a link to only thing that even death could not steal from Dembo — his music.

Tragic as it was, Gogo Dembo’s tale was one of many such heartbreaking tales that families share after the gravedigger has shovelled the last grain of sand on a beloved superstar’s grave.

A brief glance at history suggests that she is one of many that do not share the Mafela family’s post death glamour. In a past interview, Simon Chimbetu’s widow, Angela said life went off the rails as soon as her husband died.

“We were used to the good life and my husband used to take good care of the family. He was very organised and he left a lot of assets. Now I am a pedestrian, although my husband left a fleet of cars. I survive on vending health products and I also sell funeral policies,” she said.

Biggie Tembo’s widow Ratidzai was once reported to be squatting in an un-electrified two-roomed cottage in Snake Park, Harare as she eked out a less than glamorous existence selling isitshwala.

When artistes are alive, the state of their finances is rarely spoken about as they generally keep a lid on how much they make. While showbiz insiders might know that a lot of artistes’ coffers rarely match the image that they portray, this is not so for fans who only catch a glimpse of their favourite artiste when they are performing.

In a world where image is everything, many are not prepared to be honest about their financial wellbeing and the flashy life that they portray gives the impression that their bank accounts all have a clean bill of health.

“The problem with our industry is that it gives you a big name, but the money that you get doesn’t always correspond to how big your name is. So you end up with a big name but not the big bucks,” Winky D’s manager Jonathan Banda said in an interview.

With this being the case, it is only when death calls and artistes are laying six feet under, that their financial problems are washed to the surface.

With a long list of suffering widows, what are Zimbabwean artistes doing to make sure that those they leave behind are draped in the same elegance and glamour they bestowed upon them when they were alive?

Some believe that a lot of artistes fail because they do not have managers that handle their finances and generally teach them to be financially solvent.

Instead of employing managers that will drill them on the importance of financial frugality, they hire “yes men” that agree to their every request no matter how absurd.

“Every dollar should count. That is why management is important because these issues can not only be handled with foresight, but insight as well.

“Unfortunately our industry is small in comparison to South Africa or the East African market so many artistes don’t see the need for proper management,” said Banda.

In the age social media, where pictures are filtered and polished to give the impression that one is living large, the impression that artistes lives are all rosy will not be subject to an easy death.

Artistes like Jah Prayzah have made full use of such a platform, sharing freely with their fans that gape in awe at their seemingly faultless lives. Reality is less picture perfect, however, as even the Mudhara Vachauya hit-maker admits that thoughts of how he will survive in future are constantly on his mind.

“To be honest, I’m not a great businessman myself. One thing I acknowledge, however, is that while in our prime, we should invest in things that will pay off in the long run. Whether we do this through buying shares or investing in immovable property I don’t know. All I know is that we have to do anything we can to make sure don’t die in poverty,” said Jah Prayzah.

However, in a world where promoters only want to associate themselves with stars that are in demand artistes are now backed into a corner, as some feel like they have no choice but to keep feeding fans a glamorous, but sometimes dishonest image of themselves.

“That visibility is important because promoters won’t put money in your hand if they don’t know who you are. It might seem hollow to some people, but that publicity is how we get to make our money,” said rapper Cal Vin.