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Simba Chikore and relatives arrive at a Harare hotel for the bachelor’s party on Wednesday

Herald Reporter
Hundreds of people attended the bachelor’s party for Mr Simba Chikore, the First Family’s son-in-law, at a Harare hotel on Wednesday ahead of the grand wedding tomorrow.Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Engineer Walter Mzembi urged people to love one another as conventional marriages required faith.

“Marriage is one of the Lord’s finest inventions, that is why his presence has to be invited. Your marriage to Bona (Mugabe) provides a framework for the mutual love and self-giving of yourself to your partner.

“Being married to the First Family’s daughter means a great deal of trust. It is a fact that the President’s family trusted you in the first instance by their mere consent to your marriage to Bona,” he counselled.

He went on: “One of the quickest lessons I learnt was that marriages do not run on auto-pilot and there are no substitute husbands. It doesn’t matter what material goods and gifts you bring home, they will not substitute the quality time that matrimonial unions demand.”

He told Mr Chikore, a pilot, that marrying Miss Bona Mugabe was a huge responsibility given the “Mugabe brand”.
“You have by extension entered the realm of the Mugabe brand typified by servant leadership.  The royalty brand that the public sees with the naked eye embodies in itself simplicity, humility and empathy that is required in the execution of the First Office.

“It is a family brand committed to serving the nation with complex and unparalleled majoritarian focus, placing itself as paragon of incredible hope driving this nation forward,” he said.

“Your circumstances are no different from the behavioural adjustments that anyone marrying into our well publicised Caucasian royalties has to make. The reality is that you are not marrying an ordinary girl but Zimbabwean royalty which comes with responsibilities and expectations.”

He warned Mr Chikore to lead a dignified life because the media would be watching him.
“Welcome, Simba, to the world of scrutiny. You are no longer on your own, the Fourth Estate will be on your case as a symbol of the ideal son-in-law. Street lingo says ‘uchashandireyi iwe wakabata mhene’ — meaning to say why do you have to work yet you married a rich girl.

“You need to dissuade such street talk upfront by being your own man, working even harder for your new-found family,” he said.
Mr Chikore thanked everyone who contributed to the party.

“God is amazing, he has done amazing things in my life. I don’t say that I come from a family of pastors but all I can tell you is God is great. I thank you all for gracing the event,” he said.

Present were ministers Dr Ignatius Chombo (Local Government, Public Works and National Housing) and Webster Shamu (ICT, Postal and Courier Services), Foreign Affairs Deputy Minister Ambassador Christopher Mutsvangwa, musicians Sulumani Chimbetu, Sebastian Magacha, Mudiwa Mtandwa, businessmen and church leaders.