Fans of Tokollo ‘Magesh’ Tshabalala took to social media to pay homage to the late Kwaito legend on his posthumous birthday.
Fans honour Tokollo ‘Magesh’ Tshabalala on his birthday
The late TKZee star would’ve turned 46 on Friday.
Almost two months to the day, on Monday, 14 August 2022, Tshabalala was pronounced dead after suffering an epileptic seizure. In a statement, his family revealed that emergency medics were contacted when his lifeless body was found on his bed.
However, by then, it was all but too late. The star was laid to rest at the Westpark Cemetery in Johannesburg later that week.
“As a family we would like to thank everyone for the immense outpour of love, condolences and well wishes. Tokollo was a son, a brother, a cousin, a mentor, a guardian, and a great artist that inspired many,” the family statement read.
On what would have been his 46th birthday, fans of the No.1 Tsotsi celebrated the day in his memory.
Here are some of the best tributes we picked out:
Tokollo ‘Magesh’ Tshabalala was born on 14 October 1976, the year of the historic Soweto Uprising. Growing up in the gritty streets of Johannesburg, Magesh led a group of pioneers who turned to music as an escape from the reality of segregation and rampant poverty.
In 1994, at the dawn of democracy in South Africa, and at the age of 18, Magesh and his mates, Kabelo Mabalane and Zwai Bala, released their debut album Halloween under the TKZee banner.
It was the album South Africans turned to; to fully express the buzzing atmosphere at the time. Halloween was the soundtrack to South Africa’s new age, and this translated in the album’s sales,
The album became one of the highest-selling bodies of work in South Africa, with more than 200 000 copies sold that year. Magesh and his crew also did a sweeping at the inaugural South African Music Awards, winning four categories, including Best Kwaito Album, Best Duo/Group, Best Single and Best Kwaito Single.
Magesh and his TKZee mates rose to the pinnacle of fame in 1998 when the group released the iconic 1998 FIFA World Cup homage, Shibobo, featuring Benni McCarthy.
Tokollo has one studio album to his discography, The Longest Time, but in Kwaito, he will long be revered as the coolest persona whose catchphrases shaped urban culture in the late 90s to early 2000s.