popstar. befreiungsmusik. bisexuell. so viele liebhaberinnen und liebhaber, dass keiner mitzählen konnte. wilde parties, skandale. crack, jede menge crack. dealer, die ihr bis in die entzugskliniken nachsteigen. öffentliche schwüre, die drogen zu lassen. zusammenbrüche. aufwachen in einem hotelbett, und neben ihr im bett ist die liebhaberin tot, überdosis. honorare, wie niemand zuvor sie bekommen hat, aber ständig pleite, alles für crack, freunde, parties rausgeschmissen. vor einigen wochen: asthmaanfall nach einer crack-nacht, gehirnlähmung, koma, herzlungenmaschine. am krankenbett der expräsident, die exfrau des expräsidenten, der derzeitige präsident. die familie, die von der provinzregierung verlangt, fürs begräbnis mit designer-klamotten ausgestattet zu werden. das rattengift im crack.

von brenda fassie hätte ich auch nie erfahren, wenn ich nicht zufällig in namibia zum radfahren gewesen wäre und mir dominique aus cape town nicht diese unglaubliche geschichte erzählt hätte. globalisierung: you wish....

mehr in den kommentaren.

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 30, 2004

Fassie has outsold top US rapper Usher in parts of South Africa since her death on May 9. Three of the country's music stores this week recorded increases of between 400% and 700% as South Africans rushed to buy souvenirs of the pop queen.

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 23, 2004 Brenda Fassie poison probe Mzilikazi Wa Afrika, LESLEY MOFOKENG and ANDRE JURGENS

THE crack cocaine that Brenda Fassie smoked before she collapsed four weeks ago is suspected to have been laced with rat poison. The Sunday Times can confirm that preliminary postmortem results found that Fassie had died from a drug overdose. However, an inquest into her death has now been launched after doctors established that the singer had died of unnatural causes. Peter Snyman, Fassie's manager, said he had evidence that the drugs she took had been "tampered" with. He said there was enough evidence to show that the crack cocaine Fassie used was laced with a lethal rat poison. Snyman said he and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela would ask police to question a young woman who was known to have been close to the singer. The woman not Fassie's lover, Gloria Chaka visited the star at her Buccleuch home in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Sunday April 25. That night the singer went on her last crack cocaine binge. The next morning she collapsed after suffering an asthma attack. She was rushed to Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg. For two weeks she lay on life support in the intensive care unit. She died on Sunday May 9 after the life support was turned off. Snyman said he knew that the dealer who had sold drugs to Fassie had also sold crack to a young man lying in a coma in a Johannesburg hospital. "It is also suspected that his drugs were laced with a rat killer," Snyman said. Drug dealers are known to add harmful substances such as rat poison, baby powder and washing powder to cocaine to increase the volume of the drug and their profits. Professor Hendrik Scholtz, State Chief Special Forensic Pathologist in Johannesburg, who conducted the postmortem, said his final results "would be forwarded to the inquest magistrate within the next two weeks". Scholtz, who refused to comment further, said: "The inquest was launched after a Sunninghill Hospital doctor established that the deceased died of unnatural causes." Snyman confirmed that he had seen Fassie's preliminary postmortem results. The Sunday Times has established that: The amount of drugs found in Fassie's blood was enough to kill a "100% healthy person"; Fassie had taken a cocktail of drugs and not only crack cocaine; There was a strong suspicion from the postmortem that she had also taken drugs early on the morning of April 26 just before she collapsed and was rushed to hospital; Although the asthma played a role in her death, it was the cocktail of drugs she took that killed her; and Fassie's drug dealers visited her while she was lying in hospital. Snyman confirmed that an unknown person withdrew R500 from Fassie's bank account while she was in a coma in hospital. Yesterday President Thabo Mbeki told 20 000 mourners at Fassie's funeral at the Langa Stadium in Cape Town that South Africans must unite to fight the problem of drugs. He said society had a responsibility to help people who battled drug addiction. "We all know the problems Brenda had. We wanted her to live to 80 years old," Mbeki said of the Madonna of the Townships who died at age 39. Sello "Chicco" Twala, Fassie's producer, said the pop diva failed to quit drugs because drug dealers followed her everywhere. Twala said: "Dealers used to follow Brenda even to rehabilitation centres to supply her with drugs. These are the guys who really killed Brenda. But she was also her worst enemy because she could not resist the temptation. "It is important for the Fassie family to tell the public what really killed Brenda. She was a role model and our kids must learn from her death." Fassie, who was infamous for openly taking drugs in shebeens and other public places, had been in 30 rehabilitation centres but still failed to kick the habit. Police Superintendent Eugene Opperman said drug dealers added "harmful substances" to drugs to increase their profits. "People have died because of this in South Africa but it is also an international trend," he said. "Unscrupulous dealers in cocaine and heroin try to get more out of the product to make more money so they add whatever they can, even poison."

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 23, 2004 Fassie family try to hitch a free ride on funeral bandwagon Mzilikazi Wa Afrika, LESLEY MOFOKENG, and HENRIETTE GELDENHUYS

BRENDA Fassie's family wanted taxpayers to foot a bill of almost R2-million to bury the controversial pop diva in style. But the Sunday Times has established that the Western Cape government turned down the family's requests, which included designer clothing they wanted to wear to the funeral yesterday. The Fassie family also wanted her body to lie in state at Newlands Stadium for three days, which would have cost the province more than R1-million. Mcebisi Skwatsha, Western Cape MEC for Public Works and Transport, who headed an official committee which helped the family with funeral arrangements, said the provincial government could not meet some of the family's requests. "We were able to organise a memorial service at Langa's Johnson Ngwevela Community Hall, which cost the provincial government not more than R50 000. "Brenda was an icon and she was from our province." said Skwatsha. He said the provincial government had refused to dress the family. Skwatsha said: "We definitely refused to buy their clothing. The question is why do they need special attire for the funeral." The family also wanted the provincial government to fork out for a variety of other items. However, provincial MEC for Finance and Economic Affairs, Lynn Brown, did not authorise the request for payment. Fassie family spokesman Leslie Sedibe, who is also a lawyer for Fassie's record company EMI, maintained that the company regarded providing a secure future for Fassie's son Bongani as its chief priority. Sedibe said: "For us it was a choice between a lavish funeral and a better future for Bongani. We cannot afford to spend money left, right and centre. We are concerned about Bongani's future, we would rather spend money on him." Sello "Chicco" Twala, Fassie's producer and finance manager, also claimed that certain Fassie family members had made "ridiculous demands". Twala said: "If they wanted Gucci outfits for the funeral, they should have paid for it out of their pocket. "My aim is to spend the remaining money of Brenda's on Bongani. The boy is still too young and will need the money for his future." Twala also said he was told that the family wanted money to renovate their Langa house in preparation for the funeral. He added that he was not prepared to fork out money for this. Twala said: "I would rather spend money on Brenda's house in Buccleuch because Bongani lives there and that would be his home." Johannesburg undertakers, City Funeral, donated a R25 000 glass coffin in which Fassie's body was displayed to mourners at Langa Stadium yesterday. EMI spent R210 000 on Fassie's hospital bill. The company also paid about R40 000 to fly 10 members of the Fassie family from Johannesburg to Cape Town, hired three luxury 4x4 vehicles to transport them and bought flowers and 15 sheep for the funeral. Sedibe said: "Every single cent we have spent is just a donation from EMI and is not going to affect Brenda's royalties. "The company was also prepared to donate even millions of rands on hospital bills just to save her."

The New York Times, May 17, 2004 Monday Brenda Fassie, 39, South African Pop Star, Dies By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

Brenda Fassie, the wild child of South African pop who was beloved as the piercing siren of the dispossessed under apartheid, died on May 9. She was 39. Family members said that her death stemmed from an April 26 asthma attack at home that led to heart failure and brain damage. She had been on life support since then at the Sunninghill Hospital north of Johannesburg. For 20 years, singing in English, Xhosa and Zulu, Ms. Fassie was one of Africa's top-selling musicians and the object of some of its liveliest gossip. ''Black President,'' her anthem to Nelson Mandela in jail envisioning the day that he would come out and lead the country, became her generation's harder-edged addition to its elders' tradition of religious liberation songs. ''Vulindlela,'' her wedding song, was adopted by the African National Congress in its 1999 election campaign. ''Weekend Special,'' her complaint that she would not be a married man's part-time girlfriend, topped the charts before she was 20 and remained a staple. Ms. Fassie's tempestuous life and her changing fashions in music and clothing earned her the nickname ''the black Madonna of the townships,'' but she was far less solvent and far more impetuous than the American Madonna. She struggled for years with drug and alcohol problems, hitting bottom in 1995 when she woke up in a seedy Johannesburg hotel next to the body of her lesbian lover, who had overdosed. She went into rehabilitation, but was defiant in interviews about her crack use and her bisexuality, then largely taboo subjects among black South Africans. She was often broke, sharing her large houses with her singers, musicians and hangers-on and helping support her siblings. She missed concerts, leading her fans to riot and her producers to sue. Even when she was famous, her son, Bongani, now 20, was asked to leave his grammar school when she could not pay tuition. He is her only survivor. She had a series of stormy relationships with men and women, many of which ended in a hurricane of newspaper articles with accusations from one side or the other of beatings, theft or drug binges. She fired and then reunited with various managers, and alienated critics by hurling obscenities at them during awards ceremonies. And yet through it all, the nation looked on her with indulgent affection. She could call herself the niece of former President Mandela (she was a member of the same Madiba clan of the Xhosas) and refer to him as a ''bloody jailbird'' in the same sentence and still be forgiven. (He, his former wife Winnie and President Thabo Mbeki all visited her in the hospital before her death.) Recently, after a string of South African music awards, she boasted: ''I'm going to become the pope next year. Nothing is impossible.'' Ms. Fassie, who was named for the American singer Brenda Lee, grew up in a two-bedroom house in Langa, a black township outside Cape Town. The last of nine children of a domestic worker, she sang as a child at churches and hospitals, and then in high school she joined a group that performed in colored townships, which was unusual in those days when apartheid segregated the races on a hierarchical ladder and mixed-race audiences rarely accepted African singers. She described running away from home at 14 and hitchhiking on a gasoline truck to the Soweto township outside Johannesburg. Other accounts said she went in an agent's car with her mother's permission. In any case her talent was soon recognized, and she was asked to front a group that then changed its name to Brenda and the Big Dudes. After their initial hits, she went off on her own, and the Dudes named their next album ''Hamba Uzobuya'' (''Yeah, Go, but You'll Come Back''). She did not. The Dudes disbanded. Her career took off.

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 16, 2004 Brenda's vow in church to give up drugs Henriette Geldenhuys and MZILIKAZI WA AFRIKA

ON SUNDAY morning April 25, Brenda Fassie made a promise in front of a church congregation that she would give up her wild ways. Hours later she went on a massive drug binge that would cost her her life. Fassie told members of His Church Kingdom Ministries in Atholl, Johannesburg, that she would bring all the "things" she had been using to them so that they could destroy them, that she had done all the wrong things there were to be done, and that she was "tired of living like this". But later that day she was back in her Buccleuch, Sandton, home smoking crack cocaine until midnight. At 8am the following day, the Madonna of the townships collapsed and would never regain consciousness. Fassie was admitted to the Sunninghill Hospital with heart failure, although it was initially believed she had suffered an asthma attack. After two weeks on life support in the intensive care unit, she died last Sunday. This week her lover of two years, Gloria Chaka, 27, who lived with Fassie, spoke out about the truth behind the singer's death. Chaka was with Fassie when she collapsed and spent three days and nights at her bed in hospital. "Brenda was at church from 10am to 4pm that Sunday. She was in a very good mood, shouting Praise the Lord' as she walked through the door," said Chaka. "After that, she called her six dogs, Chicco, Leslie, Mzambiya, Brenda, Bongani and Mafikizolo, to her bedroom and played with them. But at 8pm she started smoking crack until midnight. "We went to sleep, but when she woke up in the morning, she couldn't breathe. While I was trying to plug in the oxygen tank she used because of her asthma, she stopped breathing altogether. "Brenda had stopped breathing for at least 20 minutes before we got to the hospital. When we got there, the doctor told me: This person is dead.' I saw there was no life in her," said Chaka. Pastor Linda Gobodo, who had known Fassie since she was a little girl growing up in the township of Langa near Cape Town, confirmed that she had made the dramatic public confession. "As far as I'm concerned, God forgave her and cleansed her on the last day of her active life. Her life was not in vain because she had the opportunity to confess to all the wrongs she had done in front of the whole congregation. Everyone knows her life was a mess, but on the one day she had, she made it right," said Gobodo. Chaka said Fassie, whom she claimed had been addicted to crack for 20 years, often spent R3 000 a day on the drug and smoked it on a daily basis when they lived together. Chaka said crack ruined Fassie's life and that she would have been alive today if it weren't for it. Chaka said Fassie had become "very thin" as a result of crack abuse. "The first time I met her, she was a size 32. But recently, she had gone right down to a size 26. She would say: Gloria, look at me. I'm already dead. This is not the real Brenda. It's because of drugs that I look like this.' "I begged her to stop, even when she was crawling on the floor looking for pieces of crack. She was always on the floor, searching ... She would pick up a piece of candle wax believing it was crack. "I would tell her: No, it's wax. What are you doing? Why are you doing this? Tell me, so I can help you.' She would become very angry if she didn't find a piece of crack." Chaka said Fassie had easy access to crack and that dealers would deliver it to her home. Fassie was admitted to various drug rehabilitation centres in Cape Town and Johannesburg over the past decade, but failed to overcome her addiction. In 1995, Poppy Sihlahla, Fassie's lover at the time, died in a Hillbrow hotel of a cocaine overdose. Fassie was found next to her in a drug-induced haze. Chaka said she realised within the first few days of meeting her that Fassie was addicted to crack. Two weeks into their relationship, Chaka claims, she approached the Buccleuch police, told them where to find Fassie's dealers and requested that they arrest them. She felt it was the right thing to do, "because I didn't want to lose my lover. But the police told me they couldn't come out." The couple met at the nightclub Kilimanjaro in Melrose Arch when Fassie was performing there. "I told her, I want to be a star like you. I love you. I've loved you since I was six years old.' "She took me home with her in her Land Rover. That night, we made love for the first time. I stayed for two weeks. She didn't want me to go home. She said, You are my wife. You're not going anywhere.' " Chaka said they would often sit in Fassie's room while the star taught her how to sing, or they would go out for supper at a hotel and sleep over. Chaka also spoke of how ill Fassie had been before she died. "She suffered from asthma and coughed all the time. Once, when she was battling to breathe, she said: Please take a knife and cut my chest right open so that I can breathe.' " Chaka said although she and various others had tried to intervene to get Fassie off crack, "she felt that some people wanted to rule her and she didn't want that". "When she went to sleep, she often asked me to put my hands on her head and pray for her. She always said, I'm scared. I know I'm going to die.' She knew it was the crack. She told me, You mustn't do this. It's very dangerous.' "She tried to hide it from me, but one day, I was cleaning her room and I found crack pipes. I told her, You promised me you would never do it again. I'm going to leave you.' She started to cry and said, I love you, Gloria. You mean everything in my life. Please don't leave me.' " After smoking crack, Fassie would "start moving very fast. She became very nervous. The whole night, she cleaned the house and I had to clean the house too, even though everything had already been cleaned. She paced up and down the rooms in the house. "In her drugged mind, she became scared of things she became very scared of a large blue, plastic toy shark which had big eyes and was in the swimming pool. But three hours later, she wouldn't remember being scared of the toy and would say, Where's my fish, Gloria? I want my fish.' "After smoking, she always wanted to hit me. She hit me for nothing. If I went into the kitchen, she would accuse me of wanting a boyfriend or another girlfriend and said I should come back and sit with her. "I told her all I was doing was fetching a glass of water. She used to say, Do you know why I hit you? It's because I love you.' "Brenda is my everything my mother, my father, my sister. I want to die because of her. She left me alone. I want to die and meet her again." Chaka said that up until this week, she was unable to tell the truth of what really happened because members of the Fassie family including Fassie's brother Themba had told her that if she opened her mouth, she would be killed. But Themba said the death threat was "nonsense" and dismissed Chaka as a "hanger-on". "Gloria was involved with Brenda, but all she is is a social climber," he said. In February it was reported that Fassie had thrown Chaka and another gay lover out of her house. Fassie was quoted as saying: "I don't love them. I just gave them shelter because they loved me." Chaka reportedly said Brenda had assaulted her and treated her as a sex slave. They were reconciled shortly afterwards. Fassie will be buried in Cape Town on May 23.

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 16, 2004 Songbird lived and died by the limelight Chris Barron

BRENDA Fassie was born in the unforgiving environment of a black township, little more than a ghetto, on the Cape Flats at one of the most unforgiving times in this country's history. The grand architect of apartheid, H F Verwoerd, was still at the height of his terrifying power, doing his damndest in the House of Assembly, not far from where Brenda was learning to walk in the gutted streets of Langa, to reduce her chances of success to the absolute minimum. He controlled everything about her, but nature had given her a couple of powerful cards to play which trumped anything his system could throw at her: an awesome voice and an indomitable spirit. Fassie's mother Ma Mokoena was a pianist and ran an informal music nursery for township children. None of them took to music like Brenda did. When she was five, she started a neighbourhood band called The Tiny Tots and, even then, God help any toddler who tried to outshine her. At the age of 17 she went to Johannesburg with producer and talent scout Koloi Lebona. She attended actor Gibson Kente's music and drama school in Soweto. When Anneline Malebo, star singer in the female soul trio Joy, famous for its rendition of Paradise Road, became pregnant, Fassie bunked school to audition as her replacement. Executives at the record company barely gave the diminutive schoolgirl a glance when she lined up with the other hopefuls. But when she sang they were, says Peter Snyman who was there that day and soon became her manager, "gobsmacked". "Thick, teary, spooky, throaty and mournful," was how one critic, hearing her voice for the first time, described it. The unknown teenager got the nod and performed with astonishing power at a packed stadium in Soweto. In 1983 her first single Weekend Special rocketed her to fame overnight. At the time, Fassie and her band were known as Brenda & The Big Dudes. The band's keyboard player Dumisani Ngobeni became the father of her son, Bongani. Fassie's arrival sent a shock wave of excitement through local pop music electrifying white fans as much as black which reverberated for the next 20 years. Despite all her setbacks, she was South Africa's undisputed queen of pop. Adored by millions, Fassie was brilliant, tempestuous and outrageous but behind the wild public facade, lonely and profoundly unhappy. She sold more records than any other South African artist and earned at least R6-million in royalties alone in the last eight years of her life. For live performances she could command between R50 000 and R80 000 a time. Fassie was South Africa's first mega pop music celebrity in the mould of Madonna. But unlike Madonna, she had no role models because nobody in this country had ever been where she went. She was on her own, and right from the start she struggled to handle the fame and the money that became hers overnight. Fassie courted publicity with as much frenzy as she cursed it. She played up to the media relentlessly while blaming it for the mess that her life so often was. Fassie did not have conventional pop-star looks and was typically feisty about it. "I don't want to be beautiful," she said. "My ugliness has taken me to the top." But looks or no looks, she had a raw, animal magnetism that made her irresistible to men and women. She was bisexual and the first high-profile woman in South Africa, black or white, to openly flaunt her lesbianism at a time when the issue was still very much taboo particularly in the black community. She "married" her lesbian lover Sindisiwe Khambule in a spectacular, made-for-the-media gay wedding in Yeoville two years ago. Too often it seemed that Fassie's celebrity status was sustained by her bizarre behaviour rather than by her powerful voice and riveting performances. She was alleged to have kept young lesbian sex slaves in the flashy mansion she built for herself in Johannesburg's Buccleuch. The victims told newspapers that Fassie used a whistle to summon them and that she made them perform demeaning tasks. During a performance in Washington DC in 2001, for an audience that included South Africa's ambassador to the US Sheila Sisulu, Fassie whipped out one of her breasts, waggled it at the audience and shouted: "I am an African woman I am not shy." South Africans in the audience were mortified, while Americans were outraged. Fassie later sneered in a Time magazine interview that she was too hot for the US to handle. Fassie was as addicted to the limelight as she was to alcohol and cocaine. She was almost pathologically sensitive to anyone stealing her glory. She treated perceived rivals as well as journalists who dared to criticise her with very public displays of unrestrained venom. When the kwaito star Mandoza was being interviewed for television after winning the song of the year at the SA Music Awards in 2001, Fassie, who'd won the award for the previous two years, grabbed the microphone and screamed at him: "F*** you, this is my night." At the same ceremony she launched a torrent of personal abuse at a Sunday Times music reporter who'd dared to write something that displeased her. In 1992 Fassie was fined R2 000 for beating up a photographer and smashing his camera. She had more relationships with men and women than even those close to her could count and most of them ended disastrously. The only husband she ever had was Nhlanhla Mbambo, the son of a Durban businessman, whom she married in a typically ostentatious ceremony in Cape Town in 1989. It was billed as Cape Town's wedding of the year, but the marriage lasted only 22 months. Mbambo is serving a 10-year jail sentence for assaulting someone (not Fassie). Fassie also had a relationship with male model Sifiso Sabela, who featured in a video of her monster 1980s hit I Wanna Ride in a Zola Budd. Sabela was shot dead in Yeoville in 2001. In 1996 Fassie was found in a desperately sleazy Hillbrow hotel next to the body of her lesbian lover Poppy Sihlahla, who'd died of a cocaine overdose. Gauteng's premier at the time, Tokyo Sexwale, held a press conference for Fassie at his home. He announced that she was a "diamond withering away" and called on the community to help rebuild her ruined life. Fassie retorted that she could do this for herself , but the all-too evident truth was that she could not. Fassie made a big thing of her ancestral beliefs and her song Amadlozi (ancestors) was a hit. However the queen of Ndebele traditional music, Nothembi Mkhwebane, commented that Fassie must have angered her ancestors because it was clear that they were not protecting her from drugs and bad company. Whenever it seemed all over for Fassie, she'd bounce back with hits such as Memeza in 1998, which sold 500 000 copies, making it South Africa's best-selling album, and Vulindlela, which also earned her millions. Fassie checked into rehabilitation clinics at least six times, always in a blaze of publicity, until eventually even some of those desperate to help gave up. Hugh Masekela refused to have her at the rehabilitation centre he'd started for stricken artists, saying she had made a mockery of the word "rehab". Towards the end Fassie knew that she was going to die. She was worn out by an unfulfilled hunger for love as much as by drugs and booze. She spoke about wanting to "sing for Jesus". On the last Sunday before she collapsed she went to church. "I want to be remembered by Jesus," she said.

The Independent (London), May 12, 2004, Wednesday OBITUARY: BRENDA FASSIE; BRASH AND BRILLIANT QUEEN OF AFRICAN POP DECLAN WALSH

BRASH AND brilliant, Brenda Fassie was Africa's undisputed Queen of Pop, a talented diva whose continent-wide appeal was dwarfed only by the scandals and addictions of her turbulent personal life. Time magazine once compared Fassie to Madonna, but the American star's contrived controversies paled beside the drug battles, failed relationships, lesbian affairs and headline- grabbing tantrums that became pillars of the Fassie legend. But behind the tabloid tattle, she was simply Africa's greatest pop star. Although her music was rooted in South Africa's gritty townships, Fassie's army of fiercely loyal fans spanned the continent. From sweaty bars in Sierra Leone to nightclubs on the Indian Ocean coast, Africans adored her piercing voice and throbbing, anthemic pop songs. "Out of 1,000 people you talk to in Africa, maybe two would say they don't know Brenda," her agent, Sello "Chicco" Twala, once boasted. Fassie was plunged into a world of music from childhood. Born in Langa, on the rundown Cape Flats, in 1964, Fassie was named, by her piano-playing mother, Sarah, after the American songstress Brenda Lee. Inevitably, the mischievous teenager was drawn to the stage. She sang at school assembly and, according to friends, was composing her own songs by the age of 20. Hearing of her distinctive vocals, the producer Koloi Lelbona tracked her down in Langa. "I knew it was the voice of the future," he said later. Moving to Johannesburg in the early 1980s, Fassie eventually formed Brenda and the Big Dudes and shot to fame in 1983 with the bubble-gum hit "Weekend Special". Her domination of the music business was to last almost two decades, bolstered by swaggering antics and a scandal-filled personal life that made her a favourite of the tabloid press. "I'm going to become the Pope next year. Nothing is impossible," she declared after winning one award in 1999. When she lost another award to a rival three years later, she raged at him publicly and spewed a torrent of obscenities at a journalist who had written critical articles about her. "I'm a shocker. I like to create controversy. It's my trademark," she said in a 1998 interview. But the dark shadow of drug addiction threatened Fassie's rising star. By her own admission, she developed a chronic cocaine and alcohol problem in the early 1990s, following her separation from her husband Nhlanhla Mbambo amid accusations that he was a wife-beater. (Mbambo was subsequently sentenced to 10 years in jail for murder.) Fassie's son was thrown out of boarding school for non-payment of fees, and she was convicted of assaulting a photographer. The turning point came in 1995, after Fassie was found lying in a seedy Johannesburg hotel room next to the body of her best friend and lesbian lover, Poppie Sihlahla, who had apparently died from a drug overdose. The singer was revived in hospital and checked herself into a rehabilitation clinic. But predictions of the imminent demise of Fassie's career were proved wrong when she bounced back with a string of hit albums and some of her best work. She collaborated with the Congolese music legend Papa Wemba on the acclaimed album Now is the Time (1996) and went on to record Memeza ("Shout"), South Africa's best-selling album of 1998. She became a leading exponent of Kwaito, the pulsating fusion of American hip-hop and township jive, and brought out another three albums, all of them best-sellers. As her popularity amplified across Africa, Fassie toured the United States in 2001 in the hope of becoming an international star. At home in South Africa, her mixture of brassy attitude and human vulnerability endeared her to many. The ruling African National Congress party capitalised on her popularity in the 1999 election by using the wedding song "Vulindela" ("Make Way") in its campaigning. Fassie, who had taken part in the anti- apartheid struggle, also gave her personal support to the ANC. At one election rally, the crowd reportedly cheered her more loudly than even Nelson Mandela, the national hero. Still, the outrageous antics continued. When her breasts popped out at a US concert in 2001, an unabashed Fassie shouted "This is Africa!" In the same year the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi - then considered a pariah to the West - fell under her spell. After a concert in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, he sent a group of armed soldiers to bring Fassie to his personal residence, where he reportedly took a ruby-and-diamond ring from his hand and slipped it onto her finger. But the battle with drugs never abated. Checking into another rehab clinic in 2002, she told the Sowetan newspaper, "I hope that when I come out of this place I'll be the real Brenda people used to know." A year later, her neighbours in the plush, formerly whites-only, Johannesburg suburb of Sandton were complaining of raucous parties that dragged on until five in the morning. On 26 April, shortly after the release of Mali, her last album, Fassie had a severe asthma attack, suffered brain damage and fell into a coma. News of her deteriorating condition dominated South Africa's front pages for weeks. Famous visitors flooded to see her in Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, including Mandela and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela Mandela. Her death brought tributes from across the continent, but the South African President, Thabo Mbeki, offered the most eloquent eulogy. She was, he said, "a Pan-African griot, making souls rise in bliss wherever her voice reached". Brenda Fassie, singer: born Cape Town, South Africa 3 November 1964; married 1989 Nhlanhla Mbambo (marriage dissolved 1991), (one son); died Johannesburg, South Africa 9 May 2004.

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 9, 2004 My last night together with Brenda MZILIKAZI wa AFRIKA, HENRIETTE GELDENHUYS and LESLEY MOFOKENG

Critically ill Fassie's lover of two years tells of their simple supper' before singer stopped breathing AS BRENDA Fassie lay fighting for her life, the woman who shared her bed and her last few moments at home was barred from entering the hospital room to offer a hand of comfort. Gloria Chaka, a 27-year-old aspiring gospel singer, yesterday spoke for the first time about the star she fell in love with two years ago. "It was love at first sight." Chaka shared intimate moments with Fassie in the last few hours she spent at her home in the suburb of Buccleuch north of Johannesburg. The night before Fassie was rushed to Sunninghill Hospital, Chaka said she had braided the singer's hair. "Brenda was like a child. I had to either sing to her or play with her so she could fall asleep." Chaka said the two sat down for a simple meal of chicken and rice and drank Coca-Cola no mention of the heavy boozing or drug-taking Fassie was known for. "I know that there are rumours about her having taken drugs which may have caused her to collapse, but we were in bed that morning," Chaka said. "Brenda jumped up saying she could not breathe. She walked out of the house through the kitchen door and I followed." Chaka said Fassie, dressed in her favourite white pyjamas, collapsed outside the house. Chaka ran back inside to fetch her oxygen tank. "But she was not breathing. The colour of her skin was changing to pure white. I phoned around for a car Brenda's car was in the garage to be fixed and her son Bongani's friend, Chimane, came with his Citi Golf and we rushed her to hospital." Chaka spent three nights at Fassie's hospital bedside, but claims that the singer's family arrived later and "kicked" her out of the ward. Since then, she had gone back to the hospital each day in the hope of seeing her lover, but had not been allowed near Fassie. "I don't know why they are doing this to me. I have spent the last nine days trying to see her but I have been barred from her room by her family." She said she was hurt by this as she had nursed Fassie when things were really "bad" and watched and supported her each time she went into rehabilitation for her drug dependency and now, when the singer needed her most, she was being prevented from going near her. "When Brenda was arrested, none of them visited her. When Brenda was down and out, none of them were there for her. But I was there for her. Today her family don't want to see me near her. "I was not a bad influence in Brenda's life, I was the one who was encouraging her to mend her bad ways. "I tried to stop Brenda from taking drugs. She knew that I did not want her to take drugs and she used to do it when I was not around or watching." Chaka said Fassie would not listen to anyone but her. "I know right now, where she is lying on that bed, she misses me. I bet you she does not want to see those family members who are next to her bed; she wants to be with me and see me. I am not boasting but Brenda and I are together. We have been to hell and back and hand-in-hand we have made it through." Chaka said it was her birthday earlier this week and she knew that Fassie would have arranged something special for her. "She loves me with all her heart." Chaka, who comes from Welkom in the Free State, says she has been living with friends in Yeoville since she was also kicked out of Brenda& x0027;s house. Fassie remains critically ill and on life support in Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg. Meanwhile at the hospital yesterday, Fassie's producer Sello Chicco Twala attacked her manager, Peter Snyman, accusing him of wanting to make a quick buck out of her misery. An upset Twala told the Sunday Times Snyman had been "asking for money from people" to pay off Fassie's debts, including medical bills. He said he had been surprised by the move because Fassie was not dead. "Why collect money from people? Everyone knows where Brenda is and her condition and no one who is owed money would want to get money from her," said Twala. Snyman said he had collected R5 000 from Yvonne Chaka Chaka, while Kora All Africa Music Awards creator Ernest Adjovi donated R5 000. Snyman claims that he contributed R10 000 for immediate expenses. "The family cannot account for everything, because things have been frozen," Snyman said. "I am seeing an attorney today Sunday so he can handle the money. I did this to help the family if that is wrong then I am guilty." Snyman said it was regrettable that he and Twala were bickering about money and he maintained Fassie's expenses should not be paid or taken care of by record company EMI. He said EMI had already paid over R100 000 for medical bills at Sunninghill Hospital. "I have offered to walk away, but the family insisted that I stay and Brenda would have wanted me to stay too." This week, as news of Fassie's worsening condition spread across South Africa, music stores reported that sales of her CDs had doubled.

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 2, 2004 It's over for Brenda. Turn off life-support machine, doctors advise star's family HENRIETTE GELDENHUYS, BABALWA SHOTA, ISAAC MAHLANGU, MZILIKAZI WA AFRIKA, LESLEY MOFOKENG, CLAIRE KEETON

We fear the worst, that there may be brain damage' BRENDA, as we know her, will never be the same." These were the words of 40-year-old pop legend Brenda Fassie's manager Peter Snyman yesterday as the singer lay fighting for her life. He was speaking as her family gathered at her bedside at Sunninghill Hospital, keeping a vigil as they had since the beginning of the week. Fassie was rushed to the hospital on Monday morning, struggling for breath. She was resuscitated by doctors and put on a ventilator to help her breathe. The Sunday Times learnt yesterday that Fassie's family had been advised to switch off the singer's life-support machine. Snyman confirmed at a media briefing held at the hospital, north of Johannesburg, yesterday that the controversial pop singer was in a "very critical" condition in the intensive-care unit. Her producer and mentor, Chicco Twala, said: "Brenda's been in hospital for the past five days and she's not recovering. She's been in a coma for the past five days so obviously it's a big blow to her fans." Fassie's family and friends insisted at first that the singer who has a history of drug use had had an asthma attack, but yesterday announced at the press conference that she had had heart failure. A sombre-looking Snyman said: "We fear the worst, that there may be brain damage." Asked if Fassie was brain-dead, Snyman replied: "You're not far wrong." He said this was the opinion of the doctor attending to Fassie. But Fassie's older brother Monty, who arrived from Cape Town yesterday, said there was no question of the ventilator being turned off. As late as Friday, the family continued to insist that Fassie was improving. Her brother, Themba Fassie, told the Sunday Times on Friday afternoon: "Her blood pressure, heartbeat and body temperature are now all okay." Looking relieved, he said his sister appeared to be responding by using gestures. "She blinks, she moves her body and she's aware that she's in hospital," he said at the time. He admitted that the pop queen's condition kept changing, but he denied that she was brain-damaged, saying two tests had shown that "her brain was still fine". But after her condition deteriorated on Friday night and a second opinion confirmed the singer had suffered brain damage, the family announced yesterday that she was critically ill. A sombre mood engulfed the hospital as friends and family arrived yesterday afternoon. Among them were her brother Themba, nephew Sikhumbuzo, Kora Awards executive producer Ernest Adjovi, former fiance Landile Shembe kaGcingca, friend Thembi Mahambehlala, personal manager Lupi Ngcayisa and Twala. Fassie's traumatised son, Bongani, arrived at about 4pm. Mahambehlala asked everyone to pray for Fassie. A priest, Pastor Linda Bam, and two of Fassie's sisters, Lindiwe and Elizabeth, were at her bedside. A frail-looking Fassie who was scheduled to perform in Swaziland today last performed at the Divas Concert in Dickson Park in Vereeniging at Easter. Fassie was South Africa's first pop superstar. The diva, who has sold more records than any other South African artist, said in an 1998 interview: "I'm a shocker. I like to create controversy. It's my trademark."

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 2, 2004 Heartbreaking vigil for Queen of Pop ROWAN PHILP, BABALWA SHOTA, ISAAC MAHLANGU

THEY told her jokes. They sang hymns. They held hands around Brenda Fassie's hospital bed and prayed. But it was all in vain. After Fassie suffered heart failure on Monday, the family vigil began with the hope that they could repeat the pop diva's own famous line: "Tell everyone that Brenda is back!" The week ended with the crushing news yesterday that her health had deteriorated dramatically on Friday and that she was in the gravest condition. An emotional Themba Fassie, her brother, said: "There are too many songs she hasn't sung yet for her fans; for the country; for herself!" Themba said he used a private code phrase in an attempt to jolt his sister out of unconsciousness: "She always knows it's me and that I desperately need her help when I text 26 Makana' to her cellphone which is our home address in Langa Cape Town . "So this week, I've been saying: It's 26 Makana.' Then I say: Listen to Bob Marley stand up for your rights!" " With Fassie showing no signs of regaining full consciousness, it took another patient in a bed near Fassie's to keep the family's hopes alive. "There was this guy from Ethiopia who was in a complete coma for eight days," said Themba. "His family read to him from Ethiopian newspapers and talked to him and he heard them! Because on the ninth day, on Tuesday, he woke up, just like that. That gave me so much hope." The drama began at 9am on Monday when Themba heard stomping sounds from his sister's bedroom at their home in Buccleuch, Johannesburg, as a desperate Fassie found she could draw his attention only by stamping on the wooden floor. "It was like she was running. She then came out of her room struggling to breathe," he said. She collapsed in his arms and "stopped breathing". After failing to revive her himself and worrying that an ambulance would take too long Themba drove Fassie to the hospital, where he said doctors had to restart her heart. Along with her manager, Peter Snyman, Fassie's family including Themba, her sister Lindiwe, her beloved son Bongani and her nephew Skhumbuzo spent most of the week in a small private family waiting room next to the intensive care unit at Sunninghill Hospital, Johannesburg. "I have been here from seven in the morning until 11 at night every day I've not had any sleep this week," Themba said. Brief visits were allowed to Fassie's bedside and included prayer sessions led by Pushie Watson, wife of Fassie's record company boss, Sean Watson. Themba said he thought Fassie was "semi-conscious" at times, and he believed she was responsive to the support at her bedside, based on small movements of her eyes and hands. At lunchtime on Friday, Themba busied himself by arranging bunches of flowers, as Skhumbuzo stacked a large white supermarket packet filled with food on the family room's small sink. The food was virtually untouched by the end of the day as agitated family members preferred multiple trips to the entrance to smoke cigarettes. Snyman paced a bleak white corridor outside the family room, fretting on his cellphone that both the problem and its cause were still unclear. "We thought it was asthma but they're treating her for heart problems," he said. "We don't even know what brought it on." Snyman bought a blue balloon for a toddler in the room who was wearing a cheery pink T-shirt reading: "If you think I'm cute, wait until you see my GRANNY!" Lindiwe embraced her and Buli Arosi, Fassie's backing singer, laughed at her antics as the child's happy play became the focus of relief for the strained family group. The vigil reached a high point of optimism on Friday afternoon, with Fassie's complexion improving from an earlier pallor, and her breathing less dependent on a ventilator. Snyman said on Friday that of a total of 14 "points" representing full breathing "she is doing 12 and the machine is doing two". Then Fassie received a bed bath and had her arms stretched by a physiotherapist. But her condition suddenly worsened hours later. Arosi said nurses in the intensive-care unit referred affectionately to Fassie by her stage nickname, "Ma-Brr", and that the staff were "so warm it was like she was in her own bedroom". However, at the main entrance to the hospital, one floor above, things were strangely normal. There were no fans showing support, and little evidence of the superstar's fight for her life. One worker at the hospital was aware Fassie was ill, but believed her problem to be minor apparently because he had seen her almost identical sister, Lindiwe, wandering outside and had mistaken her for Fassie. But the real Madonna of the Townships, as Time magazine once described her, lay fighting for her life. For somebody who had always courted controversy and attracted attention with her antics, surrounded by groupies, friends and relatives, it seemed a lonely place to be.

Sunday Times (South Africa), January 19, 2004 'Out-of-control' Brenda is back with her old flame Lesley Mofokeng

BRENDA Fassie is back with her old lover, Ludwe Maki. The couple made up last month, two years after their acrimonious parting. But Maki - who has confirmed the on-again relationship - did not suggest that Fassie had been tamed. He claimed that she was "out of control" and "worse" than when they were first an item. He did not elaborate, but said he loved Fassie and wanted to help her to turn her life around. Fassie and Maki had a turbulent on-off, six-year romance which ended when the singer accused Maki of having an affair with another man. But this week, Maki said they had put their bitter parting behind them and had been "spending quality time together" for the past month in Johannesburg. The news comes only weeks after Fassie was reported to have tied the knot with her lesbian lover, Sindi Khambule. But Maki dismissed talk of "matrimony" between Fassie and Khambule. Khambule refused to comment, saying: "I don't want to talk about our private life. My relationship with Brenda has been way too public." She referred questions about Fassie and Maki's romance to the couple. Meanwhile, a clearly smitten Maki said he had forgiven Fassie for the stories she spread about him when they parted. "I am a forgiving person. Everyone knows that Brenda always says bad things about her ex-lovers to hurt their families." Maki said they were taking things slowly. "She comes to my place often and then we go out. You should see the surprised expression on people's faces when they see us together," he said. Maki dismissed reports that Fassie had said she was "through with South African men". He said the couple had no plans to marry. Fassie did not respond to repeated requests for comment. -

Sunday Times (South Africa), May 25, 2003 Brenda has neighbours in a froth Lesley Mofokeng

CONTROVERSIAL pop diva Brenda Fassie has so infuriated her new neighbours in an upmarket Sandton suburb with her wild parties and rude guests that they want to get a restraining order against her. The trouble started last month when Fassie, notorious for her unruly behaviour, moved into Buccleuch and threw a noisy party that neighbours claim went on until 2am. But they did not complain, believing it was a once-off. However, they reached the end of their tether last weekend when Fassie held a second party, which lasted until 5am. Fassie, backed by a live band, performed at the party, attended by hundreds of guests who parked their cars along busy Gibson Drive, blocking neighbours' driveways. A member of the body corporate of Meadowfields, a townhouse complex opposite Fassie's sprawling new house, said she was "inconsiderate". He asked not to be named for fear of intimidation. "It was physically impossible for traffic to pass. People could not get into their homes and the complex. We don't mind people having parties, but the noise was unbelievable." He said cars were "screaming and racing up the block", and one car revved for 20 minutes. The man said Fassie's music went on until well after midnight. Then things quietened down, only to get noisier after 2am. Another neighbour, who gave his name only as Phillip - also for fear of intimidation - said he rang the Metro police at 3.30am. But he said the police were chased away by armed guests. Then the party continued until about 5am on Sunday. Phillip said he was so furious that he was trying to round up support for applying for a restraining order stopping Fassie from hosting further parties. He said it was difficult for him to sleep and his girlfriend had to take sleeping pills. "We are expecting the mother of all parties when Fassie turns 40 in November. We have already had two parties in six weeks," he said. The body corporate spokesman said the townhouse trustees were hoping Fassie would see sense, but it would be difficult for them to enforce noise bylaws. "Her reputation has intimidated people around here," he said. "She doesn't give a damn. It's not a race issue. She has shown total inconsideration for her neighbours." He added that they were looking at legal options to control the noise emanating from Fassie's house. "We need co-operation with her as a neighbour and not her to bring a live band into someone's back yard," he said. "Maybe her attitude of 'I will do what I want' should change. She is a neighbour from hell. We don't need the nonsense." Orlando Pirates midfielder Bheka Phakathi, who also lives in the complex opposite Fassie's house, said while he was happy to have Fassie in his neighbourhood, he thought there should be a limit to the noise she made. He said he was aware of one of the parties and had even attended it himself. But he conceded that it might have got out of hand. He said: "I am Brenda's fan, but maybe there should be a limit to her parties." But Pinky Makhubela said the musician had brought some fun into the area. "Having Brenda here is really nice. There is some activity in this very quiet neighbourhood." She argued that Fassie had not encouraged her guests to make a noise the whole night. "In fact, she announced during her performance that the party was going to end at 2.30am. So some people had their parties in their cars outside her place," she said. Fassie's manager, Peter Snyman, said Fassie had lost her cellphone and was not reachable. But he rejected the allegations against her. "The party lasted until midnight and then it stopped. "Why are you always looking for something negative to write about Brenda?" he asked, and hung up.

Chicago Tribune, November 29, 1990 Anger at injustice fuels Brenda Fassie's music By Hugh Wyatt, New York Daily News

Singer Brenda Fassie felt mixed but powerful emotions after strolling about Rockefeller Center. She was upset that passersby ignored her, except for an occasional male gawker checking out her attractive frame. "I don't guess you can have it both ways," said Fassie, a niece of Nelson Mandela and a woman whom some call the Black Madonna, because she's a star in her native South Africa and her sexy, colorful performances are charged with similarly high voltage. "I never realized just how difficult the contrast would be, between here and home," she added. "Stars talk about how they dislike fans fussing over them, begging for autographs and things like that, but deep down inside they love every minute of it. Here, they don't know who I am, and quite frankly it bothers me." Fassie, 25, should enjoy her remaining moments of privacy in America, because she is quickly capturing an audience with her debut recording on SBK. The record is generating controversy here. At home, one of its songs, "Black President," a fiery tribute to Mandela, has been banned. Penned by Fassie and Sello Twaloa, the song has been described by supporters as a powerful weapon against apartheid, which her uncle spent nearly three decades in jail fighting. "When Nelson was released, I was there and we gave each other the biggest hug. . . . It was one of the most wonderful feelings I've had." Mandela had heard Fassie's records since 1979, when she made her debut with the band Joy. Her subsequent band, Brenda & the Big Dudes, had a string of African hits, and many went platinum. In an interview, Fassie appeared friendly and perky, a sharp contrast to her music, which can be intensely angry. Asked to compare the racial climate of America with South Africa's, she replied, "You cannot touch racism here the way you can in South Africa, but I've definitely felt it." It is the politics of apartheid that motivates Fassie's music. "I am angry about the world's conditions for black people," she said.

The Guardian (London), July 23, 1986 Wednesday People: Soweto brand of soul / Brenda Fassie By STUART WAVELL

'What tribe are you - English?' enquired Brenda Fassie of Soweto on her second day in London. She was still perplexed after the previous day's startling vision of a black man with a white woman in the street. 'They look so happy and loving, and I couldn't work out what tribes they were'. She paused. 'There's a lot I've seen here that hurts. ' Brenda Fassie, aged 21, is black South Africa's most popular singer according to EMI, who have released her first hit, Weekend Special, in Britain and the United States. In Johannesburg, where she records on EMI's 'black' label, CCP, she sang to a multiracial audience of 90,000 in January. Her eight platinum records are now played by white radio stations catering to a growing appetite for black music. It must be wondered why Ms Fassie, whose love songs eschew politics, has chosen this moment to promote her international career. The answer is not clear-cut, since caution is prudent. On a purely practical level, she is the youngest of nine children, whom she has helped to support from an early age. 'I am the father of the house and the breadwinner,' she says. 'My father died when I was two and I am looking after my mother. That's why I am trying to seek fame in the world. ' As for her non-political lyrics - 'I wouldn't like to be locked up, with no one to feed my family. ' She is sensitive to possible inferences. 'I am representing my black sisters and brothers. I am trying to make a name for us. But the only way you can do that is by using a white man to talk to the big guys. ' As a 10-year-old she tried to emulate her heroines, Roberta Flack and Dionne Warwick, backed by her mother on piano in the Cape Town black township of Langa. Two years later she sang in a band, then toured the 'shabeens' (taverns), relying on small tips. At the age of 14 she moved to Johannesburg where she ended up fronting Brenda and the Big Dudes, her present group. In 1983 their song Weekend Special was an instant hit. She performs mainly in black areas, with occasional 'get-together festivals' permitting her to appear with white artists before mixed audiences. She describes music as the country's unifying language of peace. Her brand is soul, laced with the strains of her own Xhosa tribe. 'People like me because of my guts on stage,' she says, moving into her sales pitch. 'I am very temperamental and talkative. My songs are based on love. If maybe you have problems you can listen to Brenda. '

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