Remembering MaBrrr, 13 years on
Iconic South African artist Brenda Fassie, often referred to as the Madonna of the Townships, died on the 9th of May 2004.
MaBrrr, as she is affectionately known by her fans, was an anti-apartheid Afro-pop singer, with a bold stage personality and a reputation for outrageousness.
Her son Bongani Fassie told Jacaranda FM News he still regards his mother as "the best mom ever".
"The biggest lesson I learnt from mom is respect and love. She taught me that you have to respect everyone, regardless," he says.
He adds that she was not only unpredictable as an artist, but also as a mother, making life very spontaneous.
"It was the most exciting thing for me because mom was never the same old mom. She made life interesting," he says.
Bongani says there is not one specific thing that he misses most about his mother.
"I just miss her, you know," he says.
Fassie was born in Langa, Cape Town, and was the youngest of nine children.
She was named after the American singer Brenda Lee. Her father died when she was only 2 years old, and she was forced to earn money by singing for tourists.
In 1981, at the age of 16, Brenda Fassie left Cape Town for Soweto to seek her fortune as a singer.
Amid a whirlwind music career, she was discovered in a hotel with the body of her female lover Poppie Sihlahla in 1995.
Sihlahla died of an apparent overdose.
Fassie underwent rehabilitation and got her career back on track, but after struggling with drugs and undergoing rehab about 30 times, she collapsed at her home in Buccleuch in 2004.
She was in a coma for almost two weeks with the family eventually deciding to switch off life support.
The post-mortem report revealed that she had taken an overdose of cocaine on the night of her collapse, and this was the cause of her coma.
She died aged 39 on 9 May 2004.