Luvuyo Kakaza
Singer Margaret Singana died a pauper on April 22 – a further indication of the plight of South African performing artists. Somehow her death served as a reminder of Simon ”Mahlathini” Nkabinde, who also died penniless last year.
Singana (63) was a household name, together with Miriam Makeba and Letta Mbulu, in the 1960s and 1970s. She will be remembered for her 1970s smash hits Hamba Bhekile and I Never Loved a Man Like I Do, which sold over 100E000 copies.
SABC’s Radio 5 rated her as top local female artist and top local artist of the year in 1977. She was also the first South African black artist to appear on the television music show, Pop Shop. The same year, she won the critics’ award for star of the year in the British trade magazine, Music Week. In Holland and Germany, as well as in the United States, her records went to the top of the charts.
Singana’s career was, however, cut short when she had a stroke during a performance at the now-demolished Colosseum Theatre in downtown Johannesburg in 1978.
Unable to walk, Singana shunned the public spotlight, refusing to perform and record. She chose, rather, to depend on meagre royalties. In 1986 she sang the theme song of the late William Faure’s international television series Shaka Zulu.
”During Margaret’s peak, South African musicians did not have enough opportunities and the industry was not as big as today,” said Singana’s former manager, Mike Fuller. ”Although her death came as a blow to the industry, she has left behind a big influence which today comes through the likes of Brenda Fassie and Rebecca Malope.”
She was born Margaret Mcingana, but adopted Singana as a stage name. She came from Queenstown in the Eastern Cape to seek fame and fortune in Johannesburg and first worked as a domestic worker.
In 1973 her biggest break came when she was cast as the lead singer in the internationally acclaimed musical, Ipi Tombi, which was picketed by anti- apartheid activists abroad.
The stroke severely inhibited Singana’s movement, but she got by with a lot of support from her loving husband Mongezi Velelo, a renowned jazz bassist, formerly with Jazz Clan in the early 1970s.
Singana lived a quiet live at her home in Soweto, composing songs. But when her husband died last year, live was never quite the same. She not only lost emotional support, but financial support as well. She died in her sleep last Saturday.
Internationally acclaimed producer, theatre director and Singana’s mentor, Gibson Kente, said her death came as a blow to the music industry.
”It is a painful loss. I am happy she made herself a name, and that I was part of the making of her. It was in my backyard garage where she was groomed. She was like a child to me.”
A memorial service for the late Margaret Singana will be held at the Palazo Da Stella jazz club in Dube, Soweto, on Friday April 28 between 12 noon and 3pm