KIGALI - The government will be represented at the burial of Lucky Phillip Dube in South Africa on Sunday. The contents and perhaps world’s leading reggae musician was shot dead in a hijacking on Thursday night in Rosettenville, Johannesburg, South Africa, in front of his two teenagers.

"We sent our condolences and flowers on Friday and we will send a delegation to his burial on Sunday,” Youth, Culture and Sports, Joseph Habineza, said.

Lucky Dube, who died at 43, visited Rwanda three times since 1994 Genocide – in 1996, 2003 and 2006 – and his lyrics and love for children and vulnerable people won him reverence and big following in the country.

His death was greeted with grief across Rwanda with taxis, airwaves, pubs and households playing his songs end-to-end.

Meanwhile, local musicians are due to hold a concert and a vigil in honour of the man many considered their role model.

"We shall have a concert on Saturday at Alpha Palace Hotel (in Remera, a Kigali City suburb) after which we shall hold a night vigil at Contact FM offices on the same night (in Kicukiro, another city suburb,” one of the local Rastafarian artistes, Lion Imanzi, said.

The show will be free of charge, Imanzi, who is also Contact FM’s production manager, said yesterday.  Natty Dread, another Rwandan Rastafarian singer, said local Rastafarian community were yet to decide on whether they would be represented at the burial of the South African reggae king.

Dube who cerebrated his 42nd birthday in Rwanda had promised last year to return to the country to kick-start a dream project as part of his contribution to Rwanda’s recovery from the 1994 Genocide.

Meanwhile only four of the five men arrested in connection with the murder of South African reggae great Lucky Dube could be linked to the killing, police told Sapa yesterday.

The four would appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court today on charges of murder, attempted murder and illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, said Superintendent Eugene Opperman.

A fifth man arrested with them would appear in the Katlehong Magistrate’s Court on a charge related to the possession of suspected stolen property, he said.

The funeral of South Africa’s reggae legend Lucky Dube will be a private affair, family spokesman Arnold Mabunda said today. "The family requested that the funeral be a private matter due to Lucky’s beliefs and the Church’s way of doing things. "They have requested that it not be turned into a circus... That’s not what Lucky would have wanted,” he said.

"We respect the family’s wishes,” said Communication Workers’ Union of SA president Kid Sithole.

Dube’s funeral service will take place at Farmers’ Hall in Newcastle. A memorial service will be held at the Bassline in Newtown on Wednesday at 9 a.m.
Additional reporting by Sapa