South African jazz guitarist Sandile Shange died in an automobile accident in Durban on Saturday.
Shange apparently left a gig on his scooter to fetch a cable when another driver allegedly ignored a red traffic light at the corner of Innes and Windermere roads and hit Shange.
The driver sped away from the scene, but left his number plate behind. Police are investigating.
Shange was a regular performer on Durban stages, most notably that of the Rainbow jazz club, since the Eighties, appearing with luminaries of the jazz scene like his friend Darius Brubeck, with whom he also toured Europe.
He was also noted for his work with Mbongeni Ngema and was a founder member of Busi Mhlongo’s band Twasa in the early Nineties. His group the Shange Brothers played in Johannesburg in the late Sixties and early Seventies.
Shange was acclaimed for his unique style, which was influenced by rural Zulu music and township jazz. He also incorporated his own jazz chords in a finger-picking maskanda style.