‘Lundi rumours hurt family’

A FRIEND of gospel star Lundi Tyamara has urged his fans to remember him for his contribution to the music industry and not “negative rumours”.

Tyamara died aged 38 at Edenvale Hospital in Johannesburg on Friday following stomach TB and liver complications.

His close friend Nkululeko Khanyi, who met him in Empangeni, KwaZulu-Natal, in 2009, said his family felt offended by the rumours being spread about the singer following his death.

“I saw on social media people saying he was a drug addict … he used to drink. All these things they are saying were in the past. This is affecting his family badly as they are already broken over his loss,” Khanyi said. “Lundi was not perfect, like every young person his age, so when people focus on his past I feel bad for them because Lundi had fixed his things with God,” he said.

Tyamara was once dubbed the bad boy of gospel music after he told Sunday World in June 2015 that he had been going through rehab for a drug problem.

Following news of his passing, social media user Peaceful Rakoma said: “He had a troubled life. His music, drugs, sexuality, finances and health. May he rest in peace and worry no more.”

Khanyi said the singer spent his last days in prayer.

“The last days I spent with Lundi make me certain that Lundi is with the Lord … when he was in hospital, every time after he took his medication he would say we should pray together and then he would fall asleep soon after that.”

Meanwhile, the Tyamaras family spokesman Anele Hlazo said the family would not be associating themselves with any comments made by Lundi’s friends.

A memorial service will be held at Grace Bible Church in Soweto tomorrow.