CHATUNGA Bellarmine Mugabe reckons people abuse him on social networks since he does not have time to respond to allegations levelled against him.
This week there have been claims, mainly on social media, that he masterminded the attack on upcoming musician, Shashl at the weekend.
It is the latest of numerous ugly stories about him and his brother, Robert Junior, that have earned them the social media nickname “Boyz DzeSmoko”.
The brothers were even thrown into the mix as liberation war veterans clashed with the then First Lady, Grace Mugabe in 2017.
In a rare newspaper interview, the 22-year-old Chatunga told H-Metro his family embraces him despite the ‘bad boy’ tag.
In an exclusive interview with H-Metro on Wednesday, Chatunga said people who do not like him are framing him for the attack on Shashl yet he is the one who tried to broker peace.
He, however, said he is now tired of clarifying or clearing himself of the allegations constantly levelled against him on social media and no longer cares.
“Even if someone says to me ndakauraya munhu its fine. Go on internet and see nyaya dzinobuda ipapo (about me).
“I can’t go through them one by one and spending my day on internet, you end up depressed, it’s now a thing I am used to,” he said.
Chatunga said he did not have an obligation to explain what transpired at the party where Shashl was attacked.
“You can’t tell everyone, one by one to say no this happened and this didn’t happen.
“If people like me, they like me and if they don’t like me, I can’t force them.
“I’m not trying to impress anyone.”
He went on:
“The thing is I don’t even care about who started the fight.
“I don’t even want the story because at the end of the day we start going through the hassles, which we don’t have to go through.
“We start having to explain to so many people, so many factors
“People have painted a picture that you would be forced to believe even if you don’t.
“(Zimbabwe has) a population is 14-16 million…only the people around me deserve to know the kind of person I am,” he said.
Chatunga said he decided to clear himself after realising that people took advantage of his silence and absence from social media where the claims were being made.
“She (Shashl) might be following this story because she is an artiste trying to get her music up there; it’s good for artistes because there is nothing like bad publicity.
“However, it becomes so sad because she has to use someone whom I am still friends with.
“How come she does not do this when she is in South Africa? It is not as if I have never seen her in SA, I have seen her so many times but she never does this.
“Then, we come here for the first time we go out and Godfrey is not with her, that’s when this happens and it’s taking down a lot of people. My family is used to this and not her family,” he said.
He added:
“I actually said let’s leave it (interview) because I know what I did and know what I didn’t but they insisted that we are continuing to leave people tarnishing our image and it’s about high time I said something.
“To honest, she knows what happened and she knows what she did, we don’t have to prove to anyone, we don’t need to face anyone, she knows what she did and that is the reason she is lying.
“There was a time I actually wanted to sign her, I can actually show you messages but here she is fighting, we can’t work like that, we can’t operate in such a manner, it’s not okay.”
Chatunga said he was subject to scrutiny since he comes from the former first family.
“How sad it is. Today, if you were to be my friend, whatever you do you get to be scrutinised, now your family is scrutinised because you are my friend, which is a bit unacceptable
“That’s is why I got few friends, less than five because no one knows …even if I have a party, they are the only people invited, you can check on the guest list because I don’t have friends.
“Those were the only people, I had invited, there were people who were relatives, even if I am in South Africa,” he said.
Max Mugaba, who fought in Chatunga’s corner, came in:
“In this instance, that girl akarwa with another girl.
“She is an ex to his (Chatunga) friend and Chatunga was seeing that vanhu vari in that thing so ari kuenda kundovamisa
“Musikana she is in trouble with the parents you understand, anoda kuzvichenesa.
“Firstly, she said she was beaten up by Godfrey and now that the video comes out, she says no, no, haaasi,” he said.
He, however, pointed that he was not a favourite of many Zimbabweans.
“Pane mumwe munhu anongokuudza kuti muface handimufarire, handingomufarire, face yake inongobhohwa, so that’s what it is.”
Asked how he chose business partners, Chatunga said:
“There are people I do business with, people who have always been kind and supporters. Now you see the business partners, we do not just work with someone we just met today.
“Even in South Africa, there are those people we have been making relations with over time.
“So those are the people that we work with even if we do anything even if we are to invest this side.
“Then umwe munhu anogona kutouya ane idea yekuti regai nditomuvhara.
Mugaba said it was high time people separated Chatunga from the former President.
“I think it’s important for people to understand kuti mudhara anozvimirira then Chatunga is also trying to craft his own path.
“We have to give him a chance, even zvese zvaitaurwa kudhara was basically someone just writing something about him but ane right yeku replier, anga asingapihwe the chance.”
Chatunga, who ventured into business at the age of 19, said he does not dictate what should be done at their projects.
“We give joint decisions, everyone makes decisions, everyone has a say, munhu wese is part of this.
“We have been friends (with Mugaba) for years; we have known each other for so long.
“It’s just that people don’t understand, we are brothers,” said Chatunga, who once ran a butchery business in Chitungwiza.
On music promotions, he said he was ready to work with both local and foreign acts.
Locally, he has a good news for upcoming artistes.
“We don’t sign fully, artistes these days don’t get signed fully, pane publishing, pane marketing, pane different things.
“So you see, we are doing something with upcoming artists but we can’t tell you, it’s still in the pipeline,” he said.
He also opened on his source of capital to start business.
“My parents actually gave me money; I am not going to lie to you.
“Yandakaita kugadzira business was my pocket money.
“My parents used to say ‘we don’t know what’s going to happen, we don’t know whether this will work out or not.
“Both of them were a bit skeptical, they would ask me to show them my plan but you see as parents they are trying to protect the investments but now they are very proud of me,” he said.
Asked what he learnt from his parents:
“Brains, nothing else, I have the two smartest parents in the world, you can’t fail to produce.’
On being a naughty student, Chatunga said:
“I don’t want to lie to you, at school right, pane time yausingaiti homework.
“At times we were also stubborn. At times we could have racist teachers like at St Georges, the white teachers, they didn’t like us, they didn’t like us. But my Maths teachers were different, those are the ones who took time. I actually thought I was not good at Maths but actually, that became my best subject.
“At O Level I have eight subjects and Maths is there. Moms said kana usina kupasa Maths hakuzi kupasa.
“At A Level, I failed Statistics, yanga yarema.
“Currently, in am doing business at Genesis in Sandton.
“It’s my last year, I am actually finishing,” he said.
Source: H-Metro
