Harare Bureau
PROMINENT actor Fidelis Cheza, popularly known as ‘Chikwama’ or ‘Mudhara Danger’ after his roles in popular comedy Mukadota and soapie Studio 263, has died.He was 67. Cheza was found dead in his bedroom at his Highfield house in Harare on Sunday evening.
Family spokesperson, Cheza’s niece Revina Makonyonga, said the actor attended a wedding after party on Saturday and returned home in the early hours of Sunday morning when he retired to bed.
He spent the whole day in his room until family members decided to check on him at around 9PM. That is when they found him dead.
“He was well and showed no signs of sickness on Saturday when he left home for a party in our neighbourhood. He came back around 2AM and went to bed.
“He spent the whole day sleeping and we thought he was tired and needed to rest. It was only when we decided to wake him up so that he has his supper that we discovered he was dead,” Makonyonga said.
She described Cheza as an ever smiling happy man who wanted everyone around him to be happy.
“It’s a great loss to us. He was full of love and always preached unity and love wherever he was. We his children saw him like a friend and people would ask if he was really our father because of the way we related.
“Everyone enjoyed his company and he died when he was about to celebrate his 68th birthday in November.”
Cheza is survived by two sons who are based in the United States of America.One of the veterans of the Zimbabwean film industry, Cheza, an award-winning actor, featured in more than 40 film productions, both locally and regionally. Some of the film productions he was part of include 1987 feature film “Quatermain II”. That same year he had a role in “The Jungle Hell Is Going On”. He gained popularity as “Chief Palala” in the Canadian-US adventure film “The Lost World” and another production in the same year titled “Back to the Lost World”. In 1993 he starred in “The Track of the Wind” and “Bopha”.In 1997, he starred in an episode of the television series “Diamond”, as well as in the film “Kini & Adams” as Tapera among many other film productions.
Most film lovers knew him as Mudhara Danger after his role in Studio 263. At the time of his death he was shooting new film “Makunun’unu Maodzamoyo”.
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