LADYSMITH Black Mambazo is back on duty following the burial of the group’s founder Joseph Shabalala on Saturday.
The group will be off to the US today.
“We cannot sit back and cry because my father would not have liked that. He would have wanted us to continue with his legacy. It’s going to be difficult without him around, but he taught us to be strong and carry on,” said Joseph’s son, Sibongiseni.
He said they had to cut their tour short in order to attend the funeral.
“We wanted to come home immediately, but this was not possible. In fact, we nearly missed our father’s funeral because our passports were not with us, but at the Netherlands embassy.
“This is because we were in the middle of preparing for our next tour in April and it was going to take three to four weeks to get them back,” he said.
He said the Department of Arts and Culture had to intervene and they arrived on Thursday. He told Daily Sun their shows had to be postponed to later dates.
“We were supposed to perform in California on Saturday and yesterday, but these shows had to be postponed.
“We are leaving for Portland in Oregon today and will perform there tomorrow. We will be in Washington on Wednesday. We will only be back in March,” he said. He said their father was in a better place
“When we left him, we had hoped to see him again. We even composed a tribute song called Iqhawe lami nguMshengu and planned to surprise him with it on our next visit home. Little did we know he will never hear this song and this will forever be a pain in our heart.”
