Farewell to Xolani Gwala
Those close to Xolani Gwala remember the radio host’s final days – his boundless love, unbreakable spirit and his wish to see cancer treatment made accessible to all
IT’S going to be a difficult fight and a long fight. But it’s a fight I’m ready for.” These were the words Xolani Gwala spoke shortly after returning to the airwaves following an extended absence to treat his cancer – a disease that had toppled the popular radio host in the prime of his life. The man known as XG, Bra X and Mr X was back – and he was cautiously optimistic about the future.
Yes, he was in remission and things looked good but he knew it could take up to 10 years before he was officially cancer free. But he had so much to live for and he’d do everything he could to battle the beast if it preyed on him again.
“It’s been a crazy year and it’s going to take me a really long time to understand it. It’s been hell – perhaps that’s the easiest thing to say,” he said on SABC2’s Morning Live. “The lesson is to be grateful.” For a few months the man with the beloved baritone voice and infectious giggle was back, by turns charming, informing and entertaining listeners on his breakfast show on Radio 702.
Then the beast was back, more hungry than before. Xolani (44) took his final breath on 1 November at the Wits Donald Gordon Medical Centre in Johannesburg surrounded by his loved ones, including his wife, Peggy-Sue Khumalo (46), and younger brother, Mdu.
“He died peacefully,” Mdu said at his brother’s memorial service at the Rivonia Catholic Church in Joburg.
“He’d been in so much pain. After taking his last breath, he was at peace.”
Even though the disease claimed Xolani’s life, his family intend to continue fighting in his name. They want to establish a foundation to support people living with cancer, especially the poor.
“It will be his story of activism for people from vulnerable environments who can’t afford treatment for cancer,” Mdu says.
And Xolani will be smiling down from above. Throughout his cancer journey he made a point of saying how grateful he was to be able to afford treatment, both in South Africa and abroad.
“The medical costs were expensive,” he said. “If I wasn’t getting half my salary from 702 I wouldn’t have been able to
pay my bills. I was lucky I had that ability. Imagine how many people can’t afford to pay for medical aid?”
XOLANI’s pain has ended, but for his wife and daughters, Siphesihle, Ngcwali, Nobuhle and Siphosethu – who range in age from 16 to three, the heartache and grief is raw and fierce.
“We’re now left with the task of picking up the pieces and making sure his kids continue with their lives,” says Matsi Modise, a family friend and the family’s spokesperson.
“But we know they miss their father and no one will be able to fill that void.”
The past few years haven’t been easy for Peggy-Sue, a former Miss South Africa and now an investment banker and head of Standard Bank Wealth.
Although she’s been too grief-stricken to speak to the media, she did release a statement following her husband’s death.
“The children and I and the rest of the family are devastated to share with you that our dearest XG, father, friend, broadcasting icon and campaigner for cancer awareness, tragically lost his brave battle against this ferocious disease,” she said.
Matsi says Peggy-Sue has been incredible through it all. “For the past two years I’ve been asking her, ‘Peggy-Sue, where do you get the strength?’ It’s been the worst experience of her life but she’s been strong.”
The family first realised something was wrong when Xolani had what he thought was the flu. “He went to different doctors but this flu wouldn’t go away,” Peggy-Sue said. “After a while doctors discovered it was more than just flu.”
She was in tears when she called Matsi to tell him the terrible news. “We’d lost one of our friends a week before so I thought she was crying because of that,” she says.
But Xolani had been diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer – and the fact he had it shows the disease doesn’t discriminate. XG should by rights not have developed cancer: he didn’t drink or smoke, he ate healthily and often ran marathons. Colon cancer often strikes older people with more compromising lifestyles.
“It’s been a challenging journey for her but she’s been amazing,” Matsi says of Peggy-Sue. “Now it’s her time to mourn her beloved Xolani.”
IN SEPTEMBER 2017, shortly after he’d broken the news to his family, the veteran broadcaster told listeners he’d be off air for a while. He asked Mdu to bring their parents, Khethezakhe and Thombo, to Joburg before he started treatment. By the time they arrived, doctors had already operated on Xolani to remove a tumour from his colon. “And to tell you the truth, we thought the worst was over,” Mdu says.
Yet it was just the beginning of a turbulent ride: the cancer had spread to Xolani’s liver, doctors told the family.
“They had to wait for his colon to heal before they could operate on his liver,” an emotional Mdu recalls.
Then came chemotherapy and remission, which saw Xolani return to the airwaves. But a few months later he was back in hospital and things looked dire.
“We even approached doctors in America but no one was able to help.”
A sliver of hope came when Xolani was accepted to take part in a clinical trial in Israel between February and June this year. “They tried to help him but there were complications with his liver and he had to come back to Johannesburg,” Mdu says.
The cancer was vicious. “It was spreading all over his body, trying to get to his brain.
“There’s nothing we didn’t do to try to save his life. My brother was in so much pain but he was a fighter and he fought until his last breath.”
Xolani was an inspiration, his oncologist Omondi Ogude says.
“It’s been a long and tough journey,” he tells us. “Tomorrow isn’t promised to any of us and XG knew this long before he had cancer. He was living his life every day as if it were his last.”
He says Xolani’s last wish was for his wife and daughters to be happy.
“He loved his family and wanted only the best for them. As far as cancer goes, he wished for greater access for those struggling with the disease who don’t have money and resources.”
Ogude admits it’s never easy to lose a patient. “But have I done my best? I think we did everything in our power to save him and get him well. I hope in some way I made a contribution to his life. I know I’m a better human being and a better doctor because of him.”
‘My brother was in so much pain but he was a fighter and he fought until his last breath’