Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - “My daughter needs answers, I need answers. More so, the country wants to know what happened to their number one goalkeeper.”
With these words, a distraught-looking Kelly Khumalo stunned audience members during the emotional second half of her show, Up Close and Personal with Kelly Khumalo, at Gold Reef City’s Lyric theatre on Thursday.
Nobody suspected that she would open up about the events that took place on the day her lover, national soccer captain Senzo Meyiwa, was murdered.
Audience members who attended the entertaining, surprising and emotional comeback of the local Afro-pop princess were dead silent for a moment as she relived the moments of that fateful day when Meyiwa was gunned down in front for her family at their home in Vosloorus during an apparent robbery.
Police have since described the murder of Bafana Bafana and Orlando Pirates goalkeeper Meyiwa as a “cold case”, as the investigation has yielded no results owing to a lack of sufficient evidence. He was killed on October 26 2014.
She seemed angered that, after three years, the police were still no closer to finding the people responsible for his death.
The tribute to Meyiwa began with an image of him on the screens mounted on the stage.
This was met with a gasp and some brief shrieks of shock, with some people in the audience wondering out loud whether Kelly was making a mistake by addressing this on what had thus far been a jovial evening.
She was backstage preparing for her next song and, while doing this, she spoke about the Sunday when two men came to the house.
She recounted the moments in which she was fighting for her life.
“My son was there, he watched the whole thing happen,” she said in an emotional state. She explained how they rushed to hospital in a desperate bid to save Meyiwa’s life.
“I prayed until I ran out of words.”
At the end of this revealing segment, the audience seemed uncertain whether to applaud or not. Then, slowly, some broke the silence and started clapping.
The performance was similar to Beyoncé’s set at this year’s Grammy Awards.
Kelly kicked off the evening with a church/choral-inspired song with the backing of a choir dressed in white, which the crowd absolutely loved.
Although there were more than a few empty seats at The Lyric, this didn’t stop Kelly from giving audience members their money’s worth and she brought out a host of guests, including Vusi Nova and Zandi Khumalo, who joined her on stage for a duet.
They wore matching dresses, but while Zandi’s was decent, Kelly’s was transparent at the top and revealed her breasts.
It remains a mystery whether she was challenging Janet Jackson’s infamous wardrobe malfunction on purpose.
