Kwaito protege hangs himself

CHIPPA LEGODIMO
Correspondent | Wednesday July 14, 2010 00:00

One of the group members Kabelo Tselaesele, who also shared a house with the deceased, told Showbiz: 'This guy went out on Saturday night and he called me to come and join him and on Sunday he came to the house because he had spent a night next door. 

Then he said he was going somewhere. Later a friend of us received a call from him (Morutiotsile) and he requested to talk to me. He said there was something he wanted to share with me and out of the blue he said he would see me later, that was the last time I heard from him.'

Tselaesele said he was astounded and was still struggling to come to terms with the tragedy and that he was left with more questions than answers. 'In this situation you are left wondering if you did something to make him do such a thing or if he had been hiding something from you.  I was sharing accommodation with him and the way he was always open - even in the way we did our music - I thought he would confide if he had any personal problem,' he said.

The group's other member Lebogang Peloyamotho echoed similar sentiments saying 'he was always the one to encourage us to come out in the open if we had problems and if there was something we were not happy about as a group.  At least if he had left a (suicide) note or said something to anyone it would have given us some clues as to what drove him into committing suicide'.

The duo say it would not be easy to replace their departed friend as he was the one leading their dance moves and was also key in penning down their tracks. 'He was so creative that we always did different dance styles in different shows because he would come up with new moves in every rehearsal.

He made us stand up during the hard times because he was always positive about our chances of making it big in the music industry,' Peloyamotho said. Madlozie was formed in 2005 but were only able to release their debut album in 2008 called Re A Sokola.   Already the two youngsters are working on a dedication song for their late friend and are working with Coloza Kagiso Otukile to produce it.