"7 years seems like yesterday. May Allah continue testing you in peace. We will always love you,”
Those are the words of the celebrated social media influencer and businesswoman Zarinah Hassan alias Zari paying tribute to her late husband Ivan Ssemwanga who died on 25th may, 2017. He was 39.
Widely known as South African based Ugandan socialite, Ivan Semwanga died from Steve Biko Academic Hospital in Pretoria, South Africa where he had been receiving medical treatment having suffered a heart attack.
He was one of the members of the self-styled Rich Gang group well known in both South Africa and Uganda.
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Semwanga's lavish lifestyle contributed a bigger part in his establishment as one of the influential stakeholders in Uganda's showbiz industry. Mostly, he was known as Zari Hassan's partner in crime and a father to her children.
Over the weekend, the late Semwanga’s family and friend commemorated his life as they prayed for him.
Several others took to their social media hnadles and celebrated the late Semwanga's achievements.
As the say better late than never, Zari Hassan has taken to her Snapchat and noted that she can never get over him and will always love him.
Zari fell in love with Semwanga and in 2012 the Ivan was introduced to Zari’s parents in Munyonyo in a multimillion introduction ceremony. The two have three sons together.
A year later the couple had a bitter split whereby Zari accused Semwanga of domestic violence but they later made up.
In 2014, she again left Semwanga for lover boy Farouk Sempala and in 2015 Zari found her way into Tanzanian musician Diamond Platnumz’s heart. They are still together up to date and they have two kids together.
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Though Zari got married to Diamond Platnumz, Semwanga kept on vowing that he will one day take back the mother of his kids. Unfortunately he went to meet his Creator when his mission is unaccomplished.
According to publicly available information, Ivan was born in Nakaliro, Kayunga District. He then moved to South Africa for greener pastures, and it is alleged that Ivan worked as a ritualist in a local shrine in South Africa.
He was helping rich South Africans to solve their problems by dumping them on the ground and giving them holy water that would wash their problems away.
This helped Ivan accumulate wealth and by the time he died, Ivan had made a fortune with multimillion Business Empires which included Schools (in South Africa), students’ hostels, and apartments among others
Ivan was christened the ‘modern father of Showbiz’ in Uganda because he gave a new look to the socialite scene. All the current socialites in Uganda learnt the game from Ivan.
