Obituary: Tymon Mabaleka

IT is with a heavy heart and great sadness that I write about the passing away of Tymon Mabaleka, one of Zimbabwe’s best music producer who began his illustrious career in the then Rhodesia as a footballer and ended up a music producer. He is gone but not forgotten and he shall be sorely missed.
I first met Tymon in 1982 in New Ardbennie, Southerton, Harare, when he was working for Gallo Records, which later became Zimbabwe Music Corporation.

He was a quiet, soft-spoken and likeable personality and we got on straight away. He told me that after his football career with Highlanders, he had been hired by John Grant, who was at the time the managing director of Gallo Records, which had set up base in Bulawayo and then moved to Harare where they felt there was more business.

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Tymon was born in Matabeleland South at Nswazi in Umzingwane District. He attended Lozikeyi Primary School in Bulawayo.
After that, he attended Mpopoma High School where he received secondary education and later moved to Mzilikazi High School. On completion of his O-levels he became a great footballer, playing for Highlanders Football Club.

During one of my conversations with him in the early 1980s, I asked him what musical skills he had and he simply said: “I have no musical skills. I cannot play any musical instrument, but I just love music. It is on the strength of this that I will train to be a music producer.”

Indeed, in no time at all, Gallo Records, which shared the same premises with Teal Record Company in Southerton, soon had Tymon  competing with Chrispen Matema of Teal as producers.

Tymon’s influence on the shape of today’s Zimbabwean music as its producer will remain with us forever. He is one of the country’s most revered music producers. The list of musicians he worked with is endless. To mention only a few, he did work for Oliver M’tukudzi, James Chimombe, Lovemore Majaivana, Solomon S’kuza and the Fallen Heroes, Ebony Sheikh, The Frontline Kids, Shepherd Chinyani and the Vhuka Boys, Leonard Zhakata, the late John Chibadura, The Essentials, Kassongo Band and the Zimbabwe People’s Band.

Tymon, who now lived in Mandara, Harare, was a God-fearing person. On several occasions I met him going to church with his wife, Susan and his three children. He would stop to talk about the power of music and how it can influence society and the rest of us to become good citizens. He had become so passionate about his role in music that one could not persuade him to become anything else.

When Zimbabwe Music Corporation was amalgamated with the former Teal Record Company and became Gramma Records, Tymon was made the company’s artistes and repertoire (A&R) executive. The company then moved from its Southerton base to Williams Way in Msasa. As a way of showing his elevation, Tony Hagelthorn, the then managing director, bought Tymon a Toyota Venture which he used for both business and private affairs.

Tymon had an excellent public relations record with many musicians as he was easy to talk to. People, who found it difficult to talk to management at Gramma Records or ZMC, found solace in talking to Tymon when expressing their grievances. At one point he even became personal manager to John Chibadura as he would advise the musician how he should spend his royalties. He would also arrange tours for performances on his behalf.

In 2008, during Zimbabwe’s economic meltdown, Elias Musakwa, who had established Ngaavongwe Records, a gospel music record company and who also worked for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, negotiated with the owners of Gramma Records and ZMC to take over the running of the two music companies. He succeeded in doing so. After Musakwa’s take over, a number of the former stable’s employees were retrenched, but Tymon and Emmanuel Vhori, whom Musakwa felt were assets to the company, were kept on.

Despite the dwindling figures in record sales due to piracy as well as other economic hardships, Tymon kept producing more and more group and individual musicians up until the time of his death. He was also responsible for transforming local music which had been recorded on vinyl records to CDs.

It is hard to forget a man of that calibre. All his hard work will be sorely missed. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

• Zindi is a professor at the University of Zimbabwe and is also a musician and an author of several books in music. He can be contacted at e-mail [email protected]