The Ngema family has dismissed assertions swirling around that the body of legendary playwright and world renowned producer, Mbongeni Ngema, body will be exhumed to be re-buried at a cemetery he preferred.
This comes after reports were rife that the “Sarafina” star preferred to be buried in eMfana, eNhlwathi, north of KwaZulu-Natal and some in the family had taken a legal step to exhume his remains.
The “Stimela Sase Zola” hitmaker was buried at Heroes’ Acre in Red Hill Cemetery, Durban, in January after he died in a car accident on his way from a funeral in the Eastern Cape.
He received a special provincial funeral category two.
Barely days after his death, reports were rife that there was a family feud as to where the musician was to be laid to rest. However, his brother Nhlanhla, while speaking to The Star yesterday, dismissed the claims as “rubbish” and “disgusting”.
“As the only head of the Madlokovu (Ngema clan name) family clan eMfana eNhlwathi, I absolutely rubbish these claims and am very much annoyed and disgusted by them.
“We do not have any intentions to perform such humiliating and wicked actions to our beloved Dr Mbongeni Ngema, my brother,” a visibly livid Ngema said.
He gave a “warning shot” to those who come with “faceless” claims and everybody who thought that the Ngema family was headless and a playground.
“People think that they can write and say what they like about my family… This is on the verge of taking a very bad legal suit against those who submit such appalling stories about Dr Ngema and family.
“My brother was a deeply cultured man and had his own immediate family that he confided to. My advice is to say let’s respect that set-up and not open it up to public consumption,” Ngema added.
He said the decision to lay Ngema to rest at Red Hill Cemetery was a family decision.
“It was the family’s decision as Dr Ngema was not an ordinary man to be buried ordinarily – to be laid at the hero’s acre was more than fitting for the calibre of the man he was,” he said.
Ngema further dismissed assertions of a looming court case, saying there was nothing of the sort that he knew of.
“I know nothing about the court case. To me it’s just another gimmick to make a humiliation spectacle aiming to keep the readers entertained.”
He also dismissed reports that Ngema had died single as reported previously in a Sunday paper.
“My brother left us with Ms Nompumelelo Gumede, rightfully or otherwise. That is who he introduced us to and that is who we recognise,” he said.
Ngema had paid lobola for Gumede and thus, according to African custom, he was considered married.
The Star