Rubbing shoulders with the rich and dining with kings and queens is a common thing for top actors and musicians in South Africa.
Unfortunately, when they die, it is often said they “died a pauper”.
South African stage and television actor Tiki Nxumalo, well known for his role as Sompisi, Ruby’s father on the old Generations, was buried on Saturday.
Family, friends, fans and even the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Arts and Culture came to assist with his burial, according to his sister-in-law, Nelisiwe Nxumalo.
Nxumalo, 65, was found lying on the ground at his Lamontville, Durban, home on Monday.
Medicine for asthma was found on his bed and family members assume he might have collapsed while trying to seek assistance. Nxumalo was unmarried, had no children and was thought to have been alone in the house.
He shot to stardom when he featured in a KFC advert many years ago. He then moved on to Generations, where he stayed until the show took a new turn earlier this year.
Nxumalo had already toured internationally as part of the hit musical Ipi Tombi, and had also been involved in various stage plays in Durban over the years.
The provincial arts and culture department confirmed that the family requested assistance with funeral arrangements.
The Nxumalo family said they had been overwhelmed by the support shown to them by neighbours and the Lamontville community.
Nxumalo’s last life chapter is similar to that of Simon Mahlathini Nkabinde, of Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, who had spent three decades touring the world and popularising local genres abroad, but his bank account told a contradictory story of a zero balance when he died.
Other top musicians who made names for themselves and left a wealthy legacy but made no money for their loved ones were Ipi Tombi actor Margaret Singana, jazz supremo Allen Kwela and kwaito stars Senyaka Kekana and Brown Dash.
For many decades in the arts fraternity, in particular the performing arts sector, paupers’ burials have been the order of the day.
It is for this reason that the Association for the Entertainers of South Africa, (AESA) in partnership with Blue Label, recently introduced a ground-breaking initiative to kiss goodbye to paupers’ burials in the arts sector.
The AESA launched a burial fund last month at the Baseline in Johannesburg, which is expected to curb charitable burials of stars who are idolised in their living days but not envied at the end due to the oft-reported undesirable state of their finances and the undignified paupers’ funerals that follow.
AESA president Hepta Mailula, the initiator of the scheme, could not be reached for comment.
Sunday Independent