Reggae star Lucky Dube interred

JOHANNESBURG – Thousands of fans of South Africa’s internationally acclaimed reggae star Lucky Dube paid their final respects at a funeral service yesterday and mourned his murder.

The service in the central KwaZulu-Natal province was attended by Rastafarians and other fans from as far afield as Rwanda, Liberia and the United States, reported the public broadcaster SABC. The funeral procession was led by white-clad members of Dube’s African Christian Shembe faith, in accordance with which his body is to be covered in cow skin for burial in a private family ceremony.Dube, 43, was gunned down in an apparent botched hijacking last Thursday night in front of his two children.Tributes have been streaming in, describing the artist as an immortal legend of African music.Dube, who recorded in Zulu, English and Afrikaans, was one of the first to play reggae in his homeland and was widely admired abroad.His killing has provoked widespread condemnation world-wide and renewed domestic calls for the restoration of the death penalty in a bid to stem one of the world’s highest murder rates.Nampa-AFPThe funeral procession was led by white-clad members of Dube’s African Christian Shembe faith, in accordance with which his body is to be covered in cow skin for burial in a private family ceremony.Dube, 43, was gunned down in an apparent botched hijacking last Thursday night in front of his two children.Tributes have been streaming in, describing the artist as an immortal legend of African music.Dube, who recorded in Zulu, English and Afrikaans, was one of the first to play reggae in his homeland and was widely admired abroad.His killing has provoked widespread condemnation world-wide and renewed domestic calls for the restoration of the death penalty in a bid to stem one of the world’s highest murder rates.Nampa-AFP