Meet the Just in Time Crew who sang ‘Dziviriro Yakanaka’

By Nyaradzo Bakari

Growing up with a strong love for music and being in the school and church choir since primary school, Hault Mucheni found himself nurturing his talent and producing gospel music even though he had chosen a different career altogether.

The 31-year-old police officer’s childhood dream to become a singer pushed by the strong passion for music came to pass when he teamed up with two of his colleagues, Jonathan Madonho and Maxwell Nyandoro, to form a gospel music group which has gained lime light through its most recent release single about the Covid-19 pandemic.

Emerging from a praise and worship team at work, the Bulawayo based group, termed ‘Just In Time crew’ came about in 2015 when these police officers decided to grow their passion in gospel music.

Not having been well known in the country for five years, Just in Time crew’s new song ‘Dziviriro Yakanaka’ (Prevention is Good) which has become a theme song for Corona virus on ZBC has gathered many hits, thereby gaining momentum for Mucheni and his friends.

The song, featuring two other police officers Ray Mutizwa and Daniel Mbiza, was done in four languages, Ndebele, Shona, English and Shangani to try to have the message about the pandemic reach out to many people nationwide.

Muchena said the Corona virus song has seen people become more interested in their group and asking for other songs they have produced.

“The support we are getting is overwhelming because of our hit song ‘Dziviriro yakanaka’ in which we talk about the corona virus. People are requesting for our previous projects making our sales a bit higher,” said Mucheni.

He said the other two albums they have are titled Mwari Munondigonera (God You Do Good for Me) and ‘Makunza Mufaro’ (You Brought Happiness)

Mucheni said he has been passionate about singing from a tender age hence decided to grow his love for music with fellow police men.

“Ever since I was a child singing was my passion and I can say it is an inborn talent. I used to be in the school choir, getting awards so being a musician was always in my mind. When I grew up and joined the police force, I joined a praise and worship team and that is when I realised music is all about sharing. I couldn’t pull through song production alone so I approached Jonathan and Maxwell to form a group and sing African traditional gospel music,” said Mucheni.

He said his main inspiration in the music industry was pastor Lawrence Haisa with whom they have had collaborations on two tracks.

“When I speak of inspiration, I speak of Pastor Haisa. He is so determined and good at what he does. So far we have had two collaborations with him in our previous albums. The tracks are titled Makandiyambutsa (You redeemed me) and Ngiyamazi (I know him).”

Balancing between his police job and music career doesn’t seem to be much of a hassle for Mucheni who said he uses his off days to focus on music. As he and his friends are still trying to find their feet in the music industry, Mucheni said they were facing financial problems as they are still trying to get their name out there and source funds.

“A problem my partners and I face is lack of finances. We have a difficult time when we now want to go to the studio for recording. Sometimes we even fail on some projects because of inadequate funds.”

Mucheni said his crew was working on another song about gender based violence to be released soon. He warned the public to look out for yet another loaded album to be released at the end of the year.