About a week after the sudden death of Tokollo Tshabalala, the kwaito fraternity, family, friends and fans gathered at the St Stithians College in Sandton to remember and celebrate the life and legacy of Mzansi’s “musical genius”, Magesh.
Fellow musicians Kabelo “Bouga Luv” Mabalane, Godfrey “Guffy” Pilane, Sbu Ntshangase, Kagiso ‘Gwyza’ Diseko, TK Nciza, DJ Cleo, and Oskido each shared their fond memories of Magesh as a friend and musician.
Distraught and shaken by Magesh’s death, legendary musician and actor Diseko paid an emotional tribute to his beste bomba.
“The trinity is missing but he’s here in spirit. I think the most important thing is to want for other people what you want for yourself. Away with hate. Away with evil. I think that will be a beginning of a better life for all of us,” Diseko said.
“And to honour those like Tokollo, who have departed physically, but are with us spiritually, mentally with teachings. Take the best, we lay to rest everything else.”
Sbu Ntshangase, a former member of Mashamplani and TKZee Family thanked Magesh’s mother, Popo Tshabalala and the entire Tshabalala family for the life and talent of Magesh.
“We owe Tokollo’s mother some royalties…because she fed us, gave us money, she even drove us around…she did everything for us, “ said Ntshangase.
“We thank the Tshabalala family, Dineo (Tshabalala), you’ve been a good sister … we loved each other more than anything, music was just a bonus.
“I want to leave one message to the industry as a whole; one of the things that killed kwaito was the spirit of competition among ourselves … all these genres we have today come from kwaito and kwaito should still be number one,” he said.
In his speech, Ntshangase also called for unity among the kwaito musicians in honour of Magesh.
“Let’s reunite. Let’s do this for Magesh because he was a loving person. We worked with everyone. As I mentioned previously, at the funeral service, Magesh had a lot of fans that became his friends. May his soul rest in, let his music live on.”
Echoing Ntshangase’s sentiments, music legend and producer Godfrey ‘Guffy’ Pilane said: “If we were to come together with the likes of Zwai, DJ Cleo, we can put a tribute album for him, and I think that will be great.”
Pilane also spoke about how Magesh came up with his stage name Guffy.
“Tokollo was very funny. I remember working on my first album as Guffy, which is the name that I was given by him.
“So this me working on my first album but I didn’t know what to call myself … on the sleeve, they wrote Godfrey and Tokollo was like ‘GODFREY on the kwaito album, you must be kidding man’
“Mdu arrived as Magesh is mocking the album sleeve and he laughed … I was so embarrassed … that’s how we ultimately came up with the name Guffy and it stuck with me,” said Pilane, in between chuckles.
Fellow TKZee member Kabelo Mabalane, who was also the MC said: “This is a true reflection of Tokollo himself.
“There was never a moment where we never laughed. We laughed at everything. There was never anything too serious that we couldn’t laugh about.”
Mabalane took the opportunity to thank Magesh’s sister Dineo Tshabalala for her support during the infancy stages of TKZee.
“Sbu spoke about Tokollo’s mother as the executive producer but truth be told TKZee is TKZee because of our sister Dineo.
“She used to work at Sony and we were at BMG … they didn’t have a budget. We became TKZee because of Sony, and that was Dineo. So Sony promoted a BMG band, all thanks to Dineo.”
Mabalane also spoke about how Magesh displayed leadership skills, even at a young age.
“Gwyza was right in saying Magesh was a coach and he could spot talent. As a young person, not knowing whether I was coming or going, idolising Magesh.
“And the words coming out of Magesh’s mouth and said mfana (boy) ‘you’re a superstar’ … if he said it, no one was going to tell me otherwise.
He told how TKZee will honour the legacy of Magesh, each time they perform.
“TKZee is not gone, it’s here to stay. And the other I was thinking if we do perform, we’re going to have a mic on stage and it’s going to have a bucket. That’s how we’re going to do it at every single performance.”
Magesh’s death was announced by the Tshabalala family on Monday, August, 15.
“It is with great sadness that the family wishes to confirm the passing of Tokollo 'Magesh' Tshabalala.”
“Magesh, as he was affectionately known, passed away this morning as a result of an epileptic seizure.”
Magesh’s funeral service was held at Rhema Bible Church on Friday, August 19. He was later buried at Westpark cemetery, Joburg.