Chase pays tribute to prisons

Givemore Muzariri
Chase Skuza has thanked management of Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service for affording him a chance to undergo a computer training course during his six-month incarceration at Bulawayo Prison.

Skuza was imprisoned for duping an unsuspecting home seeker by selling him a residential stand that did not belong to him.

The con act came to light after the purchaser discovered that the residential stand that he had bought from the musician was already being developed by another buyer.

In an interview, Skuza said when he sold his Cowdray Park suburb stand he was not aware that his best friend had stolen the city council file for the residential stand and altered ownership.

“I know a lot of my followers were disappointed by my conviction as I was being accused of having duped a homeseeker, who gave me his money as part of payment towards the residential stand that I was disposing in Cowdray Park suburb.

“As part of my marketing strategy I told most of the people that were close to be aware and I thought those people were going to assist me in marketing that property. Little did I know that one of my best friends was going to take advantage of our friendship and steal my city council file for the residential stand,” he said.

Skuza said it took him more than five months to discover that documents of his residential stand had gone missing.

“The person who stole my documents rushed to the city council offices to change the ownership of the property without my knowledge and soon after having done that the property was sold to someone else that I don’t even know up to now.

“I later got a buyer after five months and a transaction of US$2 900 was made as a deposit for the stand and that’s when I started looking for the documents of the property but I could not find them. After a few months I took my client to the residential stand for him to have an appreciation of the property, but in the process I got a shock of my life as we discovered that the property was already under development,” he said.

Skuza said upon discovering that the property was already under development the two agreed to take the matter to the courts, where the musician was ordered to pay back his client the hard earned money within three months from the day the judgment was handed down.

“Since the transaction of the residential stand was made through our lawyers we agreed that the matter be taken to court, where it was agreed that I should refund the client within three months from the day of judgment but in the process of raising the money I faced a lot of difficulties such that I could not make it as per judgment.

“The matter was taken back to court and the magistrate said since I had failed to pay the complainant on time, imprisonment was the only alternative that was left for me and that is how I was sent to prison,” he said.

Skuza said at first life was not easy at Bulawayo Prison, but from the counselling sessions that he got he discovered that it was the best environment for him to develop himself with other life sustaining skills.

“When I arrived at Bulawayo Prison I thought this was going to be the end of my life, but the rehabilitation officers urged me to develop myself such that I could live a better life away from music.

“I enrolled for a basic computer course that was being offered to inmates by Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service in partnership with other organisations that believe in the rehabilitation of inmates for their successful reintegration back into society,”he said.

Skuza said the short course was more of an eye opener as most of his life revolved around music.

“I had never been exposed to computers. The only machine that I have known in my entire life had been the musical instrument, but when I got to Bulawayo Prison I was given an opportunity to have an appreciation of computers as they were training inmates on basic computers.

“This was actually an eye opening course and I am happy to tell the nation that I now have a certificate in computers that I got while in prison and this is meant to show the world that there is life after imprisonment,”he said.

The Long Chase, as he is affectionately known in the music industry, said his conviction gave him an opportunity to have a full appreciation of a prison environment such that he is working on an album that is mainly hinged on his prison experiences.

“I am currently working on an album called Ukuhlakanipha yibuthutha because I discovered that most people who think they are clever are the people that you find behind the walls. Those who are regarded as cowards and foolish are the ones that we find in our streets because they are scared of the challenges that I encountered as an inmate.

“On the same album I composed a song meant to educate people on the dangers of a disease called Covid 19 and the song is called Ugubhane lomhlaba. The idea behind this album is to educate people on my experiences as a musician,”he said.

Station chaplain Lameck Mazaka said Skuza benefited a lot from the rehabilitation programmes on offer at their station and they hoped he was going to use some of the skills he acquired to create employment.

“We had a nice time with Chase Skuza and we were really impressed by his behaviour as an inmate who was part of the rehabilitation team. The computer course that he under took is one of the programmes that we urged him to undertake as an inmate,”he said.

 

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