Muso’s health ordeal strikes a chord
In December 2018, Musa Manzini, jazz bassist and former music producer for Generations and Backstage, lay awake on an operating table strumming his guitar while doctors removed a brain tumour during an “awake” craniotomy.
He recovered and returned to the world of jazz, until he had to once again wage a war for his life with the return of the tumour, coupled with fighting Covid.
Manzini fell ill on June 27 and was admitted to Sandton Mediclinic, where doctors discovered the tumour had returned. As he didn’t have medical aid, they couldn’t remove it there.
Thanks to a surgeon who was able to find a hospital bed at a state facility, in the middle of Gauteng’s third wave of the pandemic, Manzini was transferred to Helen Joseph Hospital, where doctors removed the tumour in a 12-hour operation. On the same day he tested positive for Covid.
After a month-long stay Manzini was discharged from hospital on Wednesday.
His experience has resurrected the call for the government to help performing artists in SA, especially as they have been without work since the lockdown.
Manzini’s family spokesperson, Palesa Mazamisa, told the Sunday Times the musician had been recuperating from surgery in Durban in February 2020 when the first lockdown came into effect on March 26.
“It was difficult to schedule follow-up appointments for him because the hospitals were filling up with Covid cases.
“The deposit for Mediclinic was R250,000 for his type of surgery. With the help of the Southern African Music Rights Organisation, we managed to pay a partial deposit.” There were “literally no beds” and the fire at Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital added to the shortage.
“However, the surgeon at Mediclinic really helped out as he pushed for Musa to get a space at Helen Joseph,” Mazamisa said.
Mazamisa said Manzini was very grateful to Dr Morena Mpanza, Dr Christos Profyris and the team.
“It was … a godsend that he was able to have access to such experienced and highly skilled surgeons. It was a scary undertaking, even more so when discovering the Covid infection, but South Africa’s medical professionals should receive more recognition for the good work they do despite the circumstances.”
She said his experience highlighted the need for a cultural fund for struggling arts.
Mandla Maseko, chairperson of the Association of Independent Record Companies of SA, said: “We knew Mr Manzini had been battling with this particular illness and required very expensive surgery. Second, there was news that one of our legendary musicians, Zola 7, had fallen ill. While it is great for all of us to support them while they are going through this situation, it is very important that we don’t wait until it is too late.
“We can’t have the National Lotteries Commission, the National Arts Council and Business & Arts South Africa funding just for activities. We can’t have a funding structure for only events without an agency dedicated to the ailing, aged and weak,” he said.
His association is putting together a strategic funding model to take to the Cultural & Creative Industries Federation of SA to present to the government.
Sport, arts & culture minister Nathi Mthethwa’s spokesperson, Masechaba Khumalo, said while the department did not have a financial scheme for sick or elderly artists, it was working on a white paper to establish a creative and cultural industries fund by looking at diverse funding and financing methods. “The department does not have a financial scheme specifically for that but has several different programmes geared towards supporting the holistic wellness of the artists and athletes. One of these is called the Silapha wellness programme, launched by the minister in February 2021,” she said.