The gifted vocalist died at Baragwanath Hospital in Johannesburg on Friday night following a long illness.In 1991 Dan Tshanda convinced his two musicians Kunene and the late Joseph Tshimange to form pop reggae and decided to call them Matshikos, a name derived from the two musicians' nicknames Mxola and Themba.Their debut album The Park Is Mine was a runaway success with hit songs such as I'm trapped, Iron Hand and Superstar.
From then, Matshikos grew into a mega group which went on to release more platinum selling albums like Innocent Man, Surrender and Happy Man.In 1995 Tshimange was shot dead at his house in Soweto and for some years it appeared Matshikos were simply gone.Problems between Kunene and Tshanda arose and Tshanda was forced to use Daniel Mokwena as lead singer in the album Usozisola.The two men were later to patch up their differences and subsequently released the album Surrender in 1998.
In between, Kunene was producing music for another group called By4, which was co founded by his fiance Ivory Sikepe.
