By BigEyeUG Team
It all started when a Newspaper advert ran showing that Ivan Ssemwanga’s house was up for sale. Then, an egoistic, charming and ever lively Ivan Ssemwanga flew to Uganda from South Africa in a bid to calm the rumours. To friends, Ssemwanga had started to get premonitions of his death. He was thus on a mission to get back and reconquer Kampala.
He hired a yellow state chopper under the watchful guard of the Uganda police on the 24th of April 2017. He was arm in arm with his bosom buddy, King Lawrance. On 30th April, he attended the Blankets and Wine. Unlike at other events where he would always be more imposing, life was already going out of the Don.
This time round, he settled for a Pepsi One litre and a glass of Wavah water. To onlookers, this was unusual of Don. Denis Mukwaya aka Muks narrates; “I have always attended every party where the Don is, and his drink is usually Champagne, a Carbernet Sauvignon and cash being splashed all around. He always loved to make his presence felt. This time, he seemed to be in farewell mode. I even saw him leaving earlier, forcing a smile here and there.”
The following Friday, he tried to live up to the usual money splashing antics which had come to define him as the Rich Gang brand. Thereafter, he flew back to South Africa on a journey that would never see him return whole, alive and well, but dead and gone to the Angels.
A week to his death, Ivan Semwanga was hit by a stroke. Many thought it was another of his check-ins to hospital. It’s after Zari appeared around the hospital bed that they knew things were serious. He was immediately taken to intensive care unit (ICU) and operated upon in a bid to clear up some clots from his blood stream. Though he came out of the operation, he never said a word again.
He would smile at his hospital visitors, wink but no words came out except hissing sounds that had come to define his new language. “’Mmmmmmm mmm ooommmm ommmmm,’ that’s all I ever heard from Ivan when I visited him in hospital. No words, nothing. I remember being there when Zari visited, he held her hand, pressed it hard then went off in ‘mmmm oooo mmm’,” a close friend tells us.
Then the fights started in hospital. While Ivan Semwanga lay in his bed, back at his South African home, Zari was not having it easy on King Lawrence whom he accused of wanting to reap from where he did not sow. Apparently, King Lawrence was searching the Don’s private room up and down trying to get hold of all Ivan Semwanga’s financial documents, titles, and all keys to his wealth. But Zari got wind of this and immediately started to reign in on him.
At one point, these fights reached hospital and the two together with other family members had to be thrown out of hospital for the peace and sanity of the sick person. Ivan saw these fights, read some on Facebook but he just could not reply to anything. Someone had to hold the phone for him. And he had no reply just the hissing sounds. Deep down, he must have felt betrayed, used and abandoned by those he considered his closest.
Sources at the Hospital say he died on Tuesday morning just before Zari was called in to have her final words. Zari came in with the children who had a last hug with the daddy. “The organs had all failed. His death was now not a matter of if, but when. Zari had already been counselled and brought to terms with what was about to happen. But she was told to keep this a secret from the children.” Hours later, the hospital declared Ivan Semwanga dead.
Zari then approached senior management at Steven Biko hospital in Pretoria and asked that they await to tell others about the death of her ex-husband. She pleaded that she still needed to put his stuff in order lest the hyenas (King Lawrence and the team) all come to snatch the wealth of the children. The hospital agreed and gave her an extension of a day.
At the end of the one day extension, Zari went to her Facebook account and made the official pronouncement; “God loves those that are special and that’s exactly who you were & I guess that’s why he wanted you to himself. You have touched and helped thousands, you did wonders and I remember you telling me ‘life is too short Zee let me live it to the fullest’, this very dark hour it makes sense why you always said those words to me. To your sons, you were a hero-some kind of superman. Anyone who has ever been in your presence knows what a charming person you were. You will be missed and remembered in so many ways. You were IVAN THE GREAT!”
Ivan Semwanga, the godfather of the Rich Gang in Uganda had died.
Solely, he had ensured Ugandans in South Africa became the new gods in the wealth circles of the country and not Ugandans working in other countries. One thing that he can’t be faulted on is that he lived his life to the fullest. His cup of life was brimming to the top. He didn’t live for the opinions of others, he searched first for his happiness, whatever gave him happiness, he pursued. Whatever his other personality flaws, he gave the entertainment industry in Uganda something to talk about. He played a part in the socialite revolution in Uganda.
The man who lived in Sandton Gauteng made Ugandans to always await life in December. It was as though he always flew back with something to get the city talking in those months when everyone was in the relaxation mode. He had married Zari Kirigwajjo in a traditional ceremony and together they had 3 boys.
Born 12 December 1977, Ivan was a few months shy of his 40th birthday. His grandfather, a one Pinto was a prominent business man in Nakaliro town in Kayunga. It is Pinto that gave Ivan money for his air ticket and visa to South Africa where he went and started from zero to become a hero. He built his way from nothing to someone. In South Africa, he was accommodated by his cousin, Kyeyune aka Cheune who has since on kept a low profile. His main businesses in South Africa were the Brooklyn Colleges that dished out diplomas to South Africans hungry for an education.
May the soul of Ivan Semwanga rest in eternal peace.
N.B: Ivan Semwanga will be buried in Kayunga, Nakaliro town on Sunday or Monday. Church service has been organized on Saturday Christ the King Church in Kampala and thereafter a public viewing has been organized at the same venue.
