Sowetan Live

Zimbabwean socialite and multimillionaire Genius “Ginimbi” Kadungure’s funeral was full of drama, bling, dollars and expensive whiskey.

Kadungure, who died in a horrific car accident last week, was laid to rest on Saturday in his home village of Domboshava outside Harare.

He got a send-off fit for a king, with his friends saying about 3,000 mourners had attended the funeral.

There was drama on Friday when one of Kadungure’s luxury cars that was part of a convoy of luxury cars that was driving from the mortuary to his home experienced mechanical problems, his friend Serge Cabonge said.

He said one of the cars had a water pipe burst and began smoking badly.

Cabonge said there were also issues with another car that was donated by a funeral parlour for the funeral service.

In a video Sowetan has seen, Cabonge is seen sitting on top of a convertible Mercedes-Benz G-Class and throwing dollars at scores of people lining the side of the road as the convoy drives through.

“There was a guy who was driving Ginimbi’s new car and we don’t know what he did. It just had a burst the pipe and had to be towed home,” said Cabonge.

Cabonge said the convoy took five hours because everyone demanded a chance to honour the man they regarded as their hero.

“The cars were blocked along the way because they were no police to control the crowd. People wanted to celebrate Ginimbi and we had to stop and I ended up giving them dollars so that we could pass.”

“I’m speechless. What I saw on Friday is something that I have never seen before. People loved and worshipped Ginimbi because he was changing their lives. In his hometown he had started a development project by building access roads,” he said.

After the drama with the cars there was an all-white party that was attended by politicians, famous people and his friends to honour him.

He was buried in a gold casket with Versace logos. Cabonge said the coffin cost R70,000.

Shelly Pilate Hearse, who worked for Kadungure, described her former boss as a selfless person who respected everyone.

“We never thought that we would have about 3,000 people coming to the funeral. I’m glad that it went well without any issues because we had a strong contingent of security personnel who made sure everything was in order,” she said.

“The activities to bid him farewell began on Friday with an all-white party the way he would have wanted. On Saturday the proceedings started with a church service led by the Salvation Army, which is their family church. The service took three hours before he was laid to rest. It has not sunk in yet that he is gone and he is now a former boss.”

Wearing black, the mourners then held an after-tears celebration where expensive booze flowed and Cabonge dished out more money.

Kadungure rose to prominence at the age of 26 as a supplier of liquefied petroleum ( gas and has had many run-ins with the law, according to Zimbabwean newspapers.

He was arrested in February for undervaluing his Rolls-Royce Ghost luxury vehicle which he claimed he had bought for R3m but the state said the actual cost had been R5m.

Previously he was arrested on tax evasion charges for importing liquefied petroleum gas worth millions of dollars without paying duty.