BY WINSTONE ANTONIO IT’S two weeks after his demise and subsequent burial, but Zimdancehall chanter and liberation hero Soul Jah Love — born Soul Muzavazi Musaka — continues to make waves from the grave. Today, Members of Parliament and ministers will deliberate the circumstances surrounding his funeral and the thousands of mourners who defied the COVD-19 lockdown restrictions and thronged his home and Warren Hills Cemetery to bid farewell to their hero. Just like he attracted attention and controversy in life, he even continues to hog the limelight posthumously. So action-packed was Soul Jah Love’s funeral that Makoni Central MP David Tekeshe (MDC-T) last week raised the issue in the august House, saying it could not go unchallenged. “Yesterday (Wednesday last week), we were attending a funeral in Rusape and there was discussion between the deceased’s relatives and Ministry of Health and Child Care officials. The issue is that many people are attending funerals instead of the regulated figures. For example, the funeral of Soul Jah Love, an artiste who died recently and may his soul rest in peace,” he said. “It seems there is selective application of the law because when a popular figure passes on, a number of people attend their funeral, but the regulations only apply for ordinary people as they are a bit stringent. So my question is on the application of law for particular individuals.’ Speaker of the National Assembly, Jacob aMudenda said Tekeshe had a point of national interest which he should raise during question time. Question time is held every Wednesday in Parliament, where Cabinet ministers take time to respond to issues raised by MPs. “It is a point of national interest. Surely, you will have done justice to yourself Honourable Tekeshe if you ask this during question time so that the relevant minister can explain why certain funerals are allowed to have more people while others are not and you will have a better response from the minister concerned,” Mudenda said. Soul Jah Love succumbed to diabetes two weeks ago and was declared liberation hero by President Emmerson Mnangagwa. The mourners, mainly youths who followed his music, walked long distances from as far as Epworth, Mabvuku, Mbare, Highfield and other suburbs to bury their icon. The four-day funeral wake could have been a super spreader after the mourners blatantly ignored the regulations put in places to contain the virus. Even national heroes, who under normal circumstances, attract bumper crowds, are receiving low-profile burials as a safety measure against the spread of the disease.
