Somizi has acknowledged that he joke he made about Zahara’s drinking hurt her, and says as a friend he failed the late singer and songwriter.

Speaking at Bulelwa “Zahara” Mkutukana’s memorial service, Somizi said he regrets making the joke and says people in the industry, and those around the Loliwe hitmaker could have done more to protect her and be there for her when she needed them.

 
“The other day I posted something about how we failed her, as an industry, as friends, we have failed her and we owe her an apology.

I’m one of those people who owes her an apology. There was a time when I was hosting the SAMA Awards, and I made a joke about her drinking, and only years later did I realize, what you say to people and how you make them feel is very important.

I learnt my lesson, because I took it for granted that it was a joke, but we don’t know how much we hurt people.

I realized later that I hurt her. Luckily we had time on earth to reconcile and become friends again.

But, still she went through a rough time, where was Somizi?

Nowhere.

Where were we?

Nowhere.

When we could have helped by saying, ‘chomi do you need A, B, C, D’, we just carried on with our lives.

We should each internally apologize to her and say sorry, we could do better. What are we learning from Zahara’s story? It’s to do better.

Stop making fun of other people’s downfalls.”