The passing of a loved one is not easy, especially for a person such as a musician and record label owner Mandla Mampintsha Maphumulo, his family says.
“He was loved by his family and the nation,” said family spokesperson Zanele Maphumulo during a joint family briefing between the Simelane and Maphumulo families on Monday.
Popular musician and businessman Mandla “Mampintsha” Maphumulo died on Christmas Eve at the age of 40, just days after his record label announced that he had suffered a stroke and was in the hospital recovering.
The Simelane and Maphumulo family briefed the media on his untimely passing and addressed multiple issues, including the comments regarding the star and his wife, Bongekile “Babes Wodumo” Simelane.
Family spokesperson Zanele Maphumulo said: “With regards to Babes, as I have said before, when you lose your loved one, it is not easy. For the past two days she was not okay but we are a family that believes in God, we pray for everything, and the prayers of both families, the Simelane’s and the Maphumulo’s, have helped and sustained her.
“They were very close, they were friends and they were lovers, it was husband and wife. Their son Sponge is also well. We are all supporting each other.”
The family also shared details of his memorial service, which is set to be held on Thursday in Durban Central, and said that his funeral would take place on Friday. However, the details have not yet been finalized and would be shared in due course.
“The funeral will be on Friday, we are still sourcing the venue with the help of the government, which has come on board to assist us as we all know that this was an icon in the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
“We are planning to have the memorial service on Thursday at the ECC church, Pastor Vusi Dube’s church, and will be starting at 11 am. Everyone is welcome to come to that memorial service – the public is also welcome because we are celebrating the life of Mampintsha.”
Zanele Maphumulo also denied claims that they heard of Mampintsha’s passing from secondary sources.
“We won’t be entertaining things which are spoken without evidence. Both families, the Maphumulos and Simelanes, were with Mampintsha when he passed away. We didn’t hear it from anyone, we were there,“ said Maphumulo.
The families also took the opportunity to express their disappointment at how people on social media were behaving and things that they were saying.
“Social media is social media and anyone is allowed to say whatever and we cannot stop anyone, but we are a family of integrity and we don’t entertain anything.
“People are saying so many things, but as a family we know the real Mampintsha and we as a family know who the real Babes is so we take what we know. So whatever is out there in the media, we are not interested in.
“But we do ask that South Africans respect that family which is mourning at this time,” said Maphumulo.
-IOL
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