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ONLY hours before taking to the stage, Zahara received a devastating message. Her brother and his friend had been found dead in the bushes.
They had been brutally murdered. At about 3PM on Sunday, Zahara received a message telling her to rush home to Phumlani Village, near East London, immediately.
“I was preparing for my 7PM gig in Ekurhuleni,” said Zahara, South Africa’s famous singer and songwriter.

“My helper told me Mbuyiseli had been shot so I should rush home. I phoned my manager and cancelled everything and took a flight at 6.45PM to East London.”
When she got home, she heard that her brother Mbuyiseli Mkutukana (25), and his friend Thanduxolo Zumani (36) had been shot. Thanduxolo’s wife Malime Veniwe (26) told the Daily Sun her husband spoke to Mbuyiseli on the phone that Sunday morning.

She said Thanduxolo asked him to go to Mdansane with him and the two men left for Mdantsane, across the river, at about noon.
“Later I went to church but then a villager came to tell me to come home. When I got home neighbours told me the men were dead.”

Zahara’s father, Mlamli Mkutukana (62), told the Daily Sun he was at home when he saw two young men come to his house and speak to Zahara’s mother, Nokhaya, at the gate. Then Nokhaya came to her husband and told him the young men had found two bodies. Mlamli said soon afterwards the councillor arrived and took them to the murder scene. “We found the bodies of the men in the veld. Both of them had bullets wounds in their upper bodies.”

“Mbuyiseli was such a good person. I still can’t believe what I saw there.”
Zahara said Mbuyiseli was the last born in the house.

“We were very close. We used to share shoes. Sometimes when I went to perform at gigs around the Eastern Cape he used to come with me and perform on stage.”
“Two weeks ago I was here at home. We spent the whole Sunday chatting. That was the last time I was with him. I am very hurt.”

Police spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Mtati Tana confirmed the incident. He said police are investigating a case of murder. No arrests have been made. – The Sun.