Tributes pour in for Loliwe hitmaker Zahara

The hitmaker died at a Johannesburg hospital.

Minister of Arts and Culture Zizi Kodwa confirmed the artist's passing on a social media platform X on Monday evening.

"I am very saddened by the passing of Zahara. My deepest condolences to the Mkutukana family and the South African music industry. The government has been with the family for some time now. Zahara and her guitar made an incredible and lasting impact in South African music," said Kodwa.

Zahara was admitted to the hospital about two weeks ago due to liver complications.

At the time of her passing, she had become a multi-platinum seller and a multi-award-winner songwriter and musician.

Trade union federation SAFTU and Parliament’s portfolio committee on sports, arts and culture also offered its deepest sympathies.

SAFTU spokesperson Trevor Shaku says Zahara was a musical genius who produced music that echoed the reality, struggles and hopes of the working-class people.

"Her song, Loliwe, is historical. It highlights the mode of passenger transport that transported the working class from labour reserves to the working centres in mines and factories.

"Excerpts of her song, Imali, are true to our situation in many senses, including that many political killings are motivated by a contest for money in tendering corruption, killings during robberies and even at a macro level, imperialist induced wars and killings are motivated by a contest for money and power.

"In Phendula, she conveys the hopes of the working people who wish their situations of destitution to change. Underlying all the problems she highlights is the capitalist mode of production and capitalist social relations that continue to reproduce multiple crises of unemployment, poverty, inequality, crime and wars."

Committee chairperson Beauty Dlulane says the 36-year-old produced music that was fit for all, regardless of race and age.

"This is sad news for the music industry and is a massive blow for her Afro-pop genre. Zahara’s music did not matter if you were old or young, black or white, or whether you spoke her native isiXhosa or not. It was good music.

"Zahara could easily have become the Brenda Fassie of her time, but she just chose to be Bulelwa from Phumlani. This is one loss that, as a country, we will not easily recover from. We have lost as a country."