Almost four months after she was buried, drama continues to follow singer Zahara, real name Bulelwa Mtukutana. The multi-award winning and multi-platinum selling musician passed away in December last year after being in ICU for weeks.
Zahara's sisters Bandezwa Mkutukana-Febana and Lumka Mkutukana recently announced that they will be hosting a music concert sometime this month at the Orient Theatre in East London to save her house in Little Falls, Roodepoort. Bandezwa said the family will not afford to pay the artists to perform at the concert as they did not have money and that they will only pay a small fee. The event will be hosted by radio and TV personality Lusanda Mbane. On the line-up of the concert will be Zahara's friend Vusi Nova, Nathi Mankayi, Khanyisa Sabuka, Butho Vuthela and Ivory Sikepe.
ZiMoja understands that the house was auctioned before Zahara passed on and Marten Bekker (who bought the house) allowed her to stay in it for a couple of months while she tried to raise funds to buy it back. According to a source, the family is now divided because Bandezwa is running the show alone and is said to have not consulted any of them about trying to raise money in the name of 'saving the house'. Sources close to the situation accused Bandezwa of being greedy and wanting to benefit financially using Zahara's name.
Meanwhile, Zahara's band have not received any communication from the family about the concert. One band member said it's bad how they have been excluded as people who were close to Zahara. "We worked with her from the start of her career, and we only hear about the said concert in the media," said a band member. ZiMoja has learnt that the family of the Loliwe hitmaker is divided in the participation of the concert as there is no house to save. The source alleges that Bandezwa fired everyone who worked with Zahara and even excluded Zahara's manager, Oyama Dyosiba, who is also their cousin in the planning of the said concert.
"Why would she sideline people who had Zahara's best interests?" asked the source. Another source said Bandezwa has no clue about Zahara's wishes because they did not get along. "She knew what kind of person she was. In fact, in one of my calls with sisi Zahara before she died, she asked me to please keep her hospitalisation private. She said the only people who should know about her hospitalisation should only be her mom, sister Lumka and Mpho Xaba (Zahara's fiance) and Oyama," the source added. ZiMoja reached out to Zahara's manager and cousin, Oyama Dyosiba, and he said he had no knowledge of the concert and wants nothing to do with it. Bandezwa admitted that the house was sold but says they are hoping to buy it back, because to them it is Zahara's memory. She also denied firing people. "We did not fire anyone from the band. We're still in communication,' she said.
