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By Bonginkosi Tiwane

Lifestyle Journalist


‘A send off as beautiful as you are,’ Khaya Dlanga lays his mother to rest

In 2020 the Dlanga family lost a son, Khaya’s younger brother Nganga to suicide.


Media personality Khaya Dlanga laid his mother to rest on Saturday in the Eastern Cape, surrounded by friends, a handful of them other Mzansi celebs.

“You ran your race. Rest in peace my dear mother. A send off as beautiful as you were. Thank you for everything you have been to us, wrote Khaya on his X account after the funeral.

Nonceba Dlanga, Dlanga’s mother passed away mid-January.  “A life that gave me life, a life that made me who I am, a life that drove me to be more than I thought I could be is no more. Thank you for being my mother,” wrote the media personality announcing her passing.

My mom, the gangster

Leading up to the funeral Dlanga shared some photos of him and his mother, sharing personal anecdotes.

“You see my mom over there looking like a gangster? That’s because she was one. Sometimes she’d wake up and choose violence. Let me present some evidence,” averred Khaya before going into a story about times where she showed her dry sense of humour.

In one occasion Dlanga, while in Gauteng shared a photo of a fancy-looking burger with her, to which she responded in the most deadpan manner.

“I sent her a pic of bunless burger telling her what we eat in JHB. She’d responded, “So? What am I to do with modern and educated people’s food?”

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Another Dlanga loss

In 2020 the Dlanga family lost a son, Khaya’s younger brother Nganga. He shared the news on his social media accounts.

“My dear brother, Nganga, whom I loved very much, is no longer with us. I never imagined this day would come.

Sharing intimate details on his brother before he took his life, Dlanga said “Everyday I look at the R5.40 he left next to the suicide note. Four one Rand, two fifty cent and two twenty cent coins. Every night when I go to the medicine cabinet, I see the empty containers of the pills he took,” wrote Dlanga in 2020 shortly after Nganga’s passing.

“I can’t bring myself to throw them away. It is the way it is for now. I know that at some point I will reach a state of equilibrium where my rational mind which knows there was nothing I could have done to prevent his suicide, and my emotions, which still wonder and on occasion blames the self.”

“Some day, my emotions and rational mind will come to a point where they are at ease with each other.”

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