/ 19 December 2004

Pop diva died after smoking cocaine

The inquest into the cause of pop diva Brenda Fassie’s death earlier this year was finalised in the Randburg Magistrate’s Court last week, Afrikaans newspaper Beeld reported on Saturday.

The inquest found that she had collapsed into a coma after smoking cocaine. It also found that she had not died of an asthma attack, as was earlier reported.

According to the post-mortem report, tests found cocaine in 39-year-old Fassie’s urine shortly after she was admitted to the Sunninghill clinic on the morning of April 26. She died 13 days later.

Preliminary post-mortem results released in May showed that she had died of a drug overdose.

It was also reported that her manager, Peter Snyman, had claimed that the drugs she used before collapsing had been laced with rat poison.

Afterwards, Snyman denied saying that Fassie had taken drugs the night before she was admitted to hospital, or that the drugs had been tampered with. — Sapa