The wife of Ladysmith Black Mambazo leader Joseph Shabalala was shot and killed and Shabalala himself wounded at his Durban home on Wednesday night, KwaZulu-Natal police reported.
Captain Gugu Sabela said on Thursday the couple had arrived at the Claremont home around 6.45pm to attend a church service when a gunman approached them and fired two shots.
Nelly Shabalala (49) was hit in the arm and head, while a bullet grazed her husband’s left hand. A woman priest was also wounded. The singer briefly pursued the fleeing attacker but was unable to catch him.
His wife was taken to the Crompton Hospital in Pinetown where she was declared dead on arrival.
Four other churchgoers who were in the house at the time of the shooting were not harmed. Sabela said the singer was not admitted to hospital and had gone to another home in Kloof outside Durban where friends and family were consoling him.
”He’s in a state of shock. He’s not himself,” she said. The motive for the attack is unknown. Sabela said a special task team had been formed to investigate the attack.
Ladysmith Black Mambazo shot to fame following the release of American musician Paul Simon’s Graceland album in the 1980s. – Sapa