By Nigel Pfunde
This piece is not an obit its just celebrating the late businessman Wicknell “B.I.G” Chivayo’s life, taking just one page from his full book of hustling , giving and enjoying his life fully ..his glass was never empty!
He was a larger-than-life character whose immense frame matches his headline-grabbing persona and has served as national entertainment and empowerment.
While many associate his high-octane cars giveaways with the economic strides of the Second Republic under the able and progressive leadership of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, his penchant for high-gear generosity started much earlier.
To set the record straight on the myth that his vehicular philanthropy was a recent creation, one need only look back to 2012 and the curious case of former Big Brother Stargame contestant Maneta Mazanhi, an incident where I found myself sitting in the front row of his strategic media manouvering.
It all started back in 2012 while I was sipping on some Viceroy at my lodgings in Cranbone, watching Big Brother Stargame religiously because my brother Roki Josphats was in the house. When fellow Zimbabwean housemate Maneta Mazanhi sighed on screen and said she “missed Biggie” then referring to the show’s unseen handler, the spirit of the wise waters prompted me to playfully connect “Biggie” to Wicknell Chivayo, as we called him in the streets. I immediately called him up to ask if he had a lady in the house and after a laugh, the ever-sleek strategist told me to push that narrative and I did!
Sleek as he was , he had noticed that Maneta was on a continental platform and that riding that digital footprint would help him project power and build international prestige and obviously more tenders.
Once Maneta was evicted, I leveraged my MultiChoice contacts(name withheld) to set up a meeting, catching her off guard with a calculated media blitz of photos alongside B.I.G. capitalising on the momentum, Wicknell decided to buy her a car to reward her for raising the Zimbabwean flag, silence her critics following her fallout with Roki and firmly clear the air about their relationship status.
Taking down his statement word-for-word in my notebook, I recorded his exact declaration on the matter:
” I am buying her a car this week. I am just waiting for quotations from dealerships and I will purchase it for her. It is my way of making the haters hate more and show them that they do not even matter. Maneta and I will be like brother and sister.
“She is my sister and also a very nice girl. As for plans of hooking up in the other way, no. That relationship will not even last as I have a girlfriend and Maneta is too small for me anyway. I love big women ”
Although he originally intended to steer her toward a $28 000 VW Polo, Maneta chose a simpler VW Beetle instead. Years have passed, Maneta has long since settled into a quiet, happily married life and Wicknell went on to quietly fund university fees for hundreds of congregants from his church at his Karigamombe offices without ever boasting about it. This snapshot serves less as a traditional profile or obituary but more as a celebration of a man who has truly lived life in the fast lane, leaving an indelible mark as Zimbabwe’s ultimate hustler-in-chief.
