S’fiso Ncwane: Gospel sensation with saintly ambitions
1979-2016
S’FISO Ncwane, who has died in Johannesburg at the age of 37, was an award-winning gospel singer who built a lucrative career through a combination of talent, charisma, an assiduously projected but sometimes shaky image of saintliness — and luck.
He believed, and had millions of adoring fans believe, that he owed his success not to luck but to the grace of God.
According to him, his life was a litany of near-death experiences which only divine intervention helped him come through. He survived a stroke and being struck by lightning.
He suffered constantly from chest pains and had to take painkillers while performing.
He almost died after suffering a heart attack in early 2015.
He collapsed on his way to a performance in Mpumalanga and collapsed again while performing in Swaziland. He was taken to hospital where the doctors told him there was nothing they could do and he was going to die.
He asked his pastor to intercede with God on his behalf and promised that if he lived he would buy the pastor a new car.
Ncwane survived and bought the pastor a 2015 MercedesBenz GL63 AMG V8 costing R1.9-million.
Following a backlash on social media, Ncwane explained that the car had been “a gift to God”, but the sniping continued and sent him into a serious bout of depression. “I wanted to die and I didn’t care how I would end my life,” he said.
While his wife Ayanda and the pastor were praying with him, he “heard the voice of God telling me that I would pass this stage and be victorious again”.
His aged, impoverished mother said that while it seemed he could afford almost R2-million to buy his pastor a car, he apparently could not afford to provide even basic support for her.
She revealed that he had stopped sending her money and her fridge was empty.
She also denied his accounts of his early life in which he said she had abandoned him when he was two weeks old.
She said she had never abandoned him and everyone, including Ncwane, knew that. She had been forced to leave him with her sister while she went to work on farms to support the family.
Then a teenage daughter from a previous relationship told Drum magazine that Ncwane had been “an absent father” who had neglected her for years. She wondered how he could spend so much on a car for his pastor when he gave her only R650 a month for support and was never there for her when she needed him.
He was “available to everyone out there except me”, she said. He had not even called her on her birthday.
Ncwane was born on April 21 1979 in Mtwalume, near Port Shepstone in KwaZulu-Natal.
By the age of eight it was evident that he had an extraordinary voice. By the age of 10 he was singing gospel songs. By his mid-teens he was being invited to perform at local churches, weddings, parties and funerals.
His first professional album, Makadunyiswe, introduced him to the gospel music industry.
In 2003 he released Umkhuleko, which did well on radio and led to an approach by EMI.
His first album with EMI was Baba Ngyavuma, featuring the award-winning hit song Phakama Nkosi yeZulu. It did so well, selling 70 000 copies and achieving platinum status, that he released a DVD.
He started his own company, S’fiso Ncwane Productions. In 2011 he released his most famous hit song, Kulungile Baba, which sold 320 000 copies in 16 months and won a SAMA record of the year award in 2013. Ncwane started the S’fiso Ncwane Bursary Foundation, which donated school uniforms to children in rural areas.
Early in 2016 he was hospitalised with malaria while on a trip to Musina.
Ncwane, who died of kidney failure, is survived by his wife, Ayanda, and five children, three of them from previous relationships . — Chris Barron
I heard the voice of God telling me that I would be victorious again He was available to everyone out there except me