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Fassie 'fighting for her life'
10/05/2004 10:14 - (SA)
Mmuso Pelesa
Johannesburg - Like many people with exceptional talent, Brenda Fassie followed the destructive path.
This week as she lay at Sunninghill Hospital in Johannesburg, bedridden with a heart problem and breathing difficulties, friends and family prayed for her speedy recovery.
Her absence from Freedom Day celebrations in Pretoria confirmed that the queen of pop was indeed sinking deeper into a bottomless pit.
Reports from the hospital about her condition range from her being stable to deteriorating and vice versa.
Distress and fatigue on the faces of family members, especially her son Bongani and brother Themba, on Friday evening emphasised that the diva was in a bad condition.
Born in Langa, Cape Town, in 1964 and unearthed by renowned composer and producer Koloi Lebona in 1979, Brenda's voice reverberated in the mainstream South African music scene throughout the 1980s with her hit Weekend Special, released in 1983.
Fassie's quick rise to fame exposed her to drug peddlers and hangers-on, all clawing on her like vultures on a carcass. Her good heart and free-giving spirit was later to become her worst enemy, exposing her to bad elements. Her occasional indulgence in drugs intensified into a serious addiction.
Her life became increasingly difficult to understand. Her mother Sarah's death in 1993, a broken marriage with jailbird Nhlanhla Mbambo, and losing her lesbian lover Poppie Sihlahla in an alleged drug overdose in 1995 added to her woes. Brenda was rolling downhill to self-inflicted destruction. She was booked into a rehabilitation centre in 1995 after she admitted she was on drugs.
Her long-time music partner, Sello Chicco Twala, stepped in at regular intervals to lift Mabrrr (an affectionate term for Fassie) from the abyss.
The two had a tumultuous working relationship over the years, but Twala kept patience with the music industry's "Bad Girl".
The arrival of kwaito knocked a sense of reality into Mabrrr. She needed to produce a hit to maintain her popularity.
Fassie's release of Paparazzi, a name pushed into the vortex of township lingo by the tragic death of Princess Diana, did not ruffle any feathers in the music industry. Many felt Fassie should quit if she could not do it any longer.
Fassie's talent was re-ignited by the release of her record-breaking albums Memeza in 1998 and Nomakanjani in 1999. sold more than 500 000 copies.
In 1999 Fassie was on top of the world when she scooped the Kora Award for the best female artist. She repeated the feat with a Sama for the best-selling Mina Nawe in 2002.
Another public lesbian affair with Sindi Khambule, 29, emerged as Mabrrr enjoyed the proceeds of her latest hits. The turbulent affair was characterised by domestic violence and sometimes incredible affection until the two parted ways.
Fassie's life was supposed to have just begun as she turned 40 recently, but the old adage that life begins at 40 seems to hold no more.
- City Press
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South Africa
