SUPERSTAR Oliver Mtukudzi’s daughter, Selmor, has said she is shocked by the excerpts from her father’s former publicist Shepherd Mutamba’s unreleased book titled Tuku Backstage.
SILENCE CHARUMBIRA ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER
The singer told NewsDay yesterday that she was just as shocked as everyone else.
“I am shocked. Some of the stuff I do not know. My mom does not speak much of mudhara (Tuku),” she said evasively.
Selmor, who has often been critical of her father, does not enjoy a good relationship with the superstar.
Although it is not confirmed, the two are often reported as not speaking to each other.
Asked if she was on talking terms with her father, she said they communicated through emails.
“We communicate on email (sic),” she said before her husband, Tendai Manatsa, who had been talking in the background grabbed her phone.
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“Shamwari, nyaya iyoyo inopisisa vanhu (My friend that story is very sensitive),” before the line went dead.
The excerpts from the book have taken the nation by storm and many have been waiting to hear Tuku’s side.
This is despite the fact that Mutamba indicated that he had the musician’s blessings on the publication of the book.
Tuku has so far remained mum.
His manager Sam Mataure, who has not been spared in the scathing book, had not responded to the email sent to him at the time of going to print yesterday.
But a former Black Spirits band member who spoke on conditions of anonymity said it was doubtful that Tuku had given Mutamba the go-ahead.
He said instead he suspected that Mutamba was getting back at Tuku after being fired unceremoniously.
“It has not been said until now that Mutamba left Tuku, but we know when he left, he was not in good books with the old man,” he said.
“That band is volatile and what Mutamba is saying is very true, but it is difficult to say he got permission, except if Tuku himself confirms he gave the go-ahead.”
He said he understood Mutamba’s frustrations “as Tuku always keeps you close like his family when things are OK, but tends to get nasty when you fall out”. The former band member said he suffered the same resistance that Mutamba says he suffered in introducing reforms.
He said it was always a mammoth task to bring up the issue with Tuku and band members worked like “hirelings”.
