Fortune Ruzungude

Fortune Ruzungude was born and raised in Makokoba, the oldest high density township in Bulawayo, a community that produced many of the city's performers. He later described growing up in a township where several ethnic groups lived side by side, an experience he said made the premise of Sinjalo feel like ordinary life. His date of birth was not given in the reports of his death. In his early years he was among the young men who trained in karate at Stanley Hall with the group that became Amakhosi.

Ruzungude was one of the first performers at Amakhosi Theatre, the Bulawayo company built by Cont Mhlanga. By his own account the karate club stumbled into drama in the 1980s when it found its training hall booked for a theatre workshop and its members took part. He performed in Amakhosi productions including Stitsha, Jazzman: The Story of Life and Dabulap, and from 1987 he toured Europe with Stitsha alongside the actress Priscilla Sithole.

His best known role was Foromani in Sinjalo, the Amakhosi television comedy directed by Pedzisai Sithole and Cont Mhlanga, which became a national hit around 2002. Opposite Mackay Tickeys as Sakhamuzi, he helped the series use humour to explore relations between Shona and Ndebele speakers in a township setting. The show made both men famous; Ruzungude recalled children shouting the characters' names in the street and a crowd at the Mutare border post so large that police escorted the cast through on the way to perform in Mozambique.

He also worked as a director, producer and arts administrator. In 2004 he directed a production titled Amanzi in Switzerland with Prudence Mabhena, and he served Amakhosi in various capacities. In a 2018 Sunday News interview he said the arts centre was operating at less than a fifth of its former capacity and called for it to be revived by a new generation.

Ruzungude lived for many years at Madlela Flats in Makokoba, Bulawayo. His sister, Memory Ruzungude, announced his death. Colleagues described him as humble, warm and hard working, a man who would come to work even when unwell and who encouraged others to keep going through difficult times. Few other details of his private life were made public.

Fortune Ruzungude died on the afternoon of 19 October 2026 at Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare, his sister Memory Ruzungude told The Chronicle. His health had deteriorated over the previous months, and he had moved from Bulawayo to his rural home in Nharira, near Chivhu. His age and cause of death were not made public. He was to be buried in Nharira on Thursday 22 October 2026.

Tributes came from across the Zimbabwean arts community. The playwright Raisedon Baya called him a pioneer who paved the way for theatre, Priscilla Sithole said his passing had shattered her, and the actors Memory Kumbota, Bhekilizwe Ndlovu and Victor Martin Simbule remembered his humility, leadership and work ethic.

Ruzungude is remembered as one of the founding performers of Amakhosi, the company that made Bulawayo a centre of Zimbabwean theatre in the 1980s and 1990s, and as Foromani, one half of the double act that made Sinjalo one of the country's best loved television comedies. Sinjalo is still recalled for the way it used laughter to talk about relations between Zimbabwe's two largest language groups. Colleagues credited him with helping to change how acting was seen in Makokoba, encouraging parents to let their children take up the arts.