South African singer Lebo Mathosa (29) died in an accident east of Johannesburg in the early hours on Monday, her manager, Linzy Cowley, said.
Mathosa’s driver apparently lost control of the Toyota Prado in which they were travelling on the N3 highway on the East Rand. The vehicle overturned between the Heidelberg Road offramp and Grey Avenue in Germiston, Ekurhuleni metro police spokesperson Kobeli Mokheseng said.
The R&B and kwaito singer, whose music also incorporated elements of African music, dance and funk, died at the scene. The driver suffered minor injuries and was treated for shock.
The cause of the accident is unknown. A case of culpable homicide is being investigated.
In November 2004, after the death of pop icon Brenda Fassie, Mathosa told the Mail & Guardian in an interview: ”You can’t deny death, you can’t fear it. I’m sure God has a better place for us, if you’re a believer.”
A sobbing Cowley told the M&G Online on Monday that Mathosa’s death was ”hard to take in”.
”She was a loving, hardworking person … ours was a new relationship, but we became friends,” was all she could say.
Big Boy Mlangeni, marketing manager of Bula Records, Mathosa’s record company until 2002, said she was an artist whom he loved and who was loved by everyone.
”She was still very young, she had so much talent and she still had such big things to do,” he said, adding that Mathosa was a ”nice, jolly person. You’d always laugh around her.”
Regarded as one of Africa’s sexiest women and often featured on magazine covers, Mathosa first came to public attention as a short-skirted teen member of the hugely successful group Boom Shaka in the mid-1990s. She embarked on a solo career in 2000, releasing the album Dream, which won her three South African Music Awards — best dance album, best dance single and best female vocalist.
Her second album, released in 2004, was titled Drama Queen, on which she tried out different styles to break out of the house and kwaito mould.
”It is not about fame for me. I have my fame; I’ve been in the scene for 10 years now. Boom Shaka put me out there, introduced me to the public. Now it is all in my hands and what do I want to do about it? Do I want to play or do I want to be serious about it? I choose to work hard for this dream,” she said about the album.
Known for her electrifying live shows, she toured the world, performing from the United States and London to Singapore and at illustrious events such as the Kora Awards, North Sea Jazz Festival and Nelson Mandela’s 85th birthday celebration.
Mathosa also tried her hand at acting, appearing on hit television shows including Backstage, Generations and Muvhango.