The Other 4 In The Helicopter Wreckage
The Cruel Economy of Fame, When Five People Die But One Trends
By Fanuel Viriri
Wicknell Chivayo and his spouse Lulu and three others died in a plane crash.
That is how the media wrote it. That is how journalism always writes it.
One line for the famous, one line to swallow the rest. The significant, and the insignificant others.
It is normal. It sells. The name Wicknell Chivayo – plastered with monikers that built a folklore of his own: “Mukuru wemazuva”, “Mbinga”, “Sir Wicknell”, “Mukobvu” “Chigananda” – that name gets the clicks. That name gets the President to issue a statement. That name trends from Harare to Nairobi, where President William Ruto calls him “my dear friend.”
But a helicopter does not discriminate. When it lost altitude over Kudenga Farm in Marondera at around 5pm on Wednesday, 40 minutes after lifting off from Gandami in Chikomba, it took five souls. It left a scene one source described as “absolute carnage.” Bodies burnt. No survivors.
And behind the moniker, behind the man who hours before had promised a Lexus GX550 and $250,000 to one lawyer and a Range Rover Sport and $500,000 to another, there were other homes that went dark that night.
There was Captain Soda – Calvin Tafirei Soda. The pilot. The man whose hands were on the controls. In every crash story, the pilot becomes a footnote, yet he is the last man fighting gravity for everyone on board.
From what we know, Soda was a retired Air Force of Zimbabwe pilot with the rank of Wing Commander. He was married with two children, Dane and Donatella. He was well known in the Methodist Church, which he attended whenever he was not flying his boss. His sister, Tanyaradzwa Soda, has been trying to ensure her brother does not die in vain by posting photographs of them together on her Facebook page. She draws just a few comments and clicks. In one post she wrote: “Chivayo went with my brother.” She had to use that name to attract attention.
There was Courage Mutavirwa, the co-pilot. A second pilot in a private chopper – a sign of how seriously this flight was taken. He had a name, a logbook, a family waiting for a call that said “landed safely.”
Not much is known about him. Not many people have come out to claim him, unlike Sanelisiwe Magagula and Soda. Courage’schometown page, Our Triangle in the sugarcane town, came to claim him:
“RIP COURAGE MUTAVIRWA. Courage Mutavirwa grew up at Section 66, Triangle. He did his primary education at Mpapa Primary School and his secondary education at Mtilikwi Secondary School. His father was the former clerk of Section 66, Triangle. Courage was the co-pilot for the helicopter that crashed carrying business tycoon Wicknell Chivayo. MHSRIP,”_ wrote Our Triangle page. Chivayo had to be inserted in for the post to gain traction. Courage is reported to have left a pregnant wife. Mourners are gathered in Highfields.
He was described as intelligent by his schoolmates. By any standard, Mutavirwa had made it in life – flying a flamboyant businessman like Chivayo and being paid handsomely. In the run-up to interviews by Chivayo, he once posted that he would employ young, black and patriotic Zimbabweans, adding that applicants had to Zanu PF members, _”vamwe ve opposition do not waste my time (applying) munogona kundidonedza” – opposition supporters should not waste time applying, you will crash me – he wrote a year ago.
There was Saneliswe Magagula. Some reports called her an aide to Lulu. She was someone’s daughter. She was a former soldier with the Zimbabwe National Army. She served in the Special Forces in the ZNA before leaving to join the security team in the Bulawayo Mayor’s office.
And there was Lucy “Lulu” Muteke herself – reduced to “and wife.” Yet at Gandami that day, witnesses say it was their rural project, their shared dream. She was not an attachment to the story. She was the story.
This is the cruel economy of fame. We mourn (some have no kind words) Sir Wicknell because we knew his money, his cars, his posts about war veterans, his friendships with Presidents Mnangagwa, Ruto, Samia Suluhu Hassan and King Mswati III. We know his Gwanda solar saga, his $132 million deals, his philanthropy that made him larger than life.
We do not know what Captain Soda told his wife before takeoff. We do not know what Courage was supposed to do on Thursday. We do not know who waited for Saneliswe.
The black box was recovered intact at Kudenga Farm. Aviation experts are looking for a mechanical reason. But the human reason we reduce five lives to “four others” is simpler: we only grieve loudly (sometimes trample) for those we recognize.
The helicopter took off from a village where Wicknell was building a modern home in line with “rural development.” It crashed in a wooded farm. In between, five people breathed the same fear.
Headlines said: CHIVAYO DIES.
The honest headline should say: SIX PEOPLE DIED, AND ONE OF THEM WAS FAMOUS.