Backing vocalist for South African musician Johnny Clegg is fatally shot in robbery
JOHANNESBURG – A backing vocalist for South African musician Johnny Clegg has been killed in a mugging in Johannesburg.
Police say Bongani Masuku was fatally shot Saturday night after four men demanded his cellphone and car keys at gunpoint as he was parking his car in the Troyeville area. A struggle ensued and Masuku was shot several times.
Clegg’s band says in a statement on the musician’s website that it is mourning Masuku, who first worked with Clegg in 1992.
One of Clegg’s best-known songs is “Asimbonanga,” which means “we’ve never seen him” in Zulu.
The song refers to the generation of South Africans who grew up under white rule and had never even seen a photograph of Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned anti-apartheid leader who later became president. Mandela died in December.
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