Bongani Fassie ‘doesn’t have to do music anymore’ since court settled Brenda’s R20m estate

Bongani can enjoy a good life after a court settled his mother’s estate 14 years after her death.

Brenda died of a cocaine overdose and left her estate, which is worth more than R20 million unsettled. A legal battle ensued between Bongani, Brenda’s record label, and music producer Chicco Twala with Bongani fighting to have royalties and funds generated from Brenda’s music career released to him.

He told The Sowetan that he was living a good life and did not have to do music anymore.

“Everything has been rounded up. I have been laying low, and I don’t want to go around flashing money because it is my mother’s hard-earned money, and I don’t want to paint a bad picture of her.

“How do you think I have been surviving? I don’t even have to do music because I feel like she has left such a strong legacy,” he said.

In 2010, it was reported how former director of South African Recording Rights Graham Gilfillan and Twala nearly came to blows over Brenda’s money. They had appeared at the Johannesburg High Court and had discussions about where hundreds of thousands of the pop star’s money had gone.

Twala had been accused of siphoning R650 000 of Brenda’s money into his own account instead of depositing it into the late singer’s bank account. Gilfillan is said to have enriched himself with her money and was paid R50 000 a month while Bongani struggled to make ends meet.

Towards the end of 2010, Bongani filed papers with the Pretoria High Court and declared he was destitute. He requested that the services of the executor be terminated and he take over as he had not been informed of the process to appoint the executor of the estate.

Ghetto Ruff record label owner Lance Stehr who lived with Bongani and managed the group Jozi, said at the time that he could no longer handle Bongani’s drug use. About overcoming a dark period in his life, Bongani recently said his two children had helped him put his act together and conquer depression.

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