MALAIKA MAHLATSI | Posting Zahara’s death before family confirms it, shocking and callous

Breaking news: Award-winning singer/songwriter Bulelwa “Zahara” Mkutukana has passed away. That was the message that flashed through social media late Monday night. It had been posted by the SABC at 22h15 and within minutes, the Tweet was deleted.

A combination of shock, sadness, grief and confusion followed. Zahara had been admitted to hospital with liver complications two weeks earlier and it had been reported that she was in intensive care unit (ICU) fighting for her life. We were all waiting for her to recover. We were waiting for a miracle.

The SABC’s post meant that the miracle would never come. But when it was deleted, we were left wondering if, perhaps, the miracle might happen after all. Why else would a public broadcaster post such a devastating announcement only to delete it minutes later, unless the announcement had been a mistake?

Hours later, the untimely death of Zahara would be confirmed by the minister of sports, arts and culture, Zizi Kodwa. The exceptionally talented artist had lost her battle to liver complications. It was not the first time that she had been admitted to hospital with liver problems. In 2019, just eight years after breaking into the music scene with the award-winning, double-platinum certified Loliwe, the Mkutukana family confirmed to the media that Zahara had been diagnosed with liver failure resulting from excessive alcohol consumption.

That year, she had spent over a month in hospital over the Christmas period. Her family stated that doctors had warned Zahara that if she continued drinking, she would die. She would later admit that she was battling with alcohol addiction and was receiving the help that she needed. It appeared that she was on the mend, releasing Nqaba Yam in 2021, which hit number one on iTunes.

She had also found love and just recently, news of her lobola were trending. Thus, even though she had been in ICU for weeks prior to her demise, her death was shocking and utterly devastating. And it was made more so by the way the SABC handled the announcement.

There is only one explanation for the SABC’s actions. The public broadcaster had rushed to announce Zahara’s death before the family could be notified and before there was official confirmation. An anonymous source in the hospital most likely provided information about Zahara’s death to someone at the SABC. It wouldn’t be the first time that anonymous sources in a hospital share news about someone’s death, only for a reckless journalist to announce it before the family confirms it.

The same thing happened with Shona Ferguson. In a rush to break the news, the public broadcaster failed to not only do due diligence but to also have a sense of human decency. Announcing a death, even that of a public figure, before the family is notified and confirms it, is the height of cruelty and callousness. No one should find out about the death of a family member via social media posts. No family should be subjected to the indignity and pitilessness of being denied the chance to confirm the death of its own child.

As we mourn the death of a woman who was the voice of a generation, a woman whose music touched millions across the continent, we do so with bitterness in our hearts because of the callousness with which the SABC announced the death. A part of me is grieving the loss of Zahara, a woman who faced trials and tribulations that in many ways, define black life.

But another part of me is drowning in anger at the disregard with which her death was announced by the public broadcaster. To have enveloped Zahara’s death in such sensationalism, unprofessionalism and lack of journalistic integrity was to kill her twice. And maybe, to paraphrase her, some day our broken hearts will mend and we will awake to find there’s one less tear. But today is not that day.