South African jazz pianist, Moses Taiwa Molelekwa, would have turned 48 today. He died 20 years ago.
On 13 February 2001, the bodies of Molelekwa and his wife Florence Mtoba were found in an office which they shared in Johannesburg. They had an eight-year-old son at the time.
His father, Jerry, says he’s still struggling to find closure.
“It’s easy for people to say just find closure. It’s not a robot you know. It’s emotions you know so I still have a lot of questions and they’ve not been addressed even in the report. The conclusion is that he killed his wife and then killed himself but I don’t see any substance to that. When I look at the report, it doesn’t state actually, just gives a statement but it’s not saying this is the object that was used,” says Molelekwa.
A music academy has established in his honour:
Molelekwa played with the likes of the late Miriam Makeba and Jonas Gwangwa in the 1980s.
Molelekwa named Herbie Hancock, Bheki Mseleku and Abdullah Ibrahim as major influences on his music.
Thembelihle Dunjana says Molelekwa’s music lives through young artists:
