Kwaito Star Dash Brown died a poor man

Late Kwaito star Dash Brown

AT THE zenith of his career, kwaito star Brown Dash swam in pools of costly champagne, ate yellow cheese and caviar, drove flashy cars and lived in posh suburbs.

But Brown Dash, real name Simphiwe Mpamile, died without a dime in his pocket, a pedestrian, a tramp and a poverty-stricken man who is likely to be given a pauper's funeral if good Samaritans don't come to his family's rescue.

The only thing Brown Dash owned when he joined the majority were the clothes he died sleeping in.

The muso's family is as poor as a church mouse and are pleading with his fellow musicians to help with funds to give him a dignified funeral. News that Brown Dash died poor came to the fore when his mother allegedly phoned his former stable bosses TK Nciza and Sbu Leope of TS Records, and asked them to contribute to his burial services.

We can reveal that when Sbu, TK and Robbie Malinga arrived at his house on Thursday, they received a hostile reception from a man who introduced himself as Brown Dash's uncle. "This man just screamed at them, asking them how much they have as a contribution towards the funeral. They were so upset they ended up contributing half of what they wanted to contribute," says a fellow muso, who does not want to named.

Though details of his funeral were sketchy at the time of going to press, the muso could be buried on Saturday. The service is likely to be held at his parents' home in Zola, Soweto. This because Brown Dash did not have a house of his own. When his music career was flourishing, he rented a posh cluster house in Fourways, north of Joburg, where he stayed with his late wife Lunga Masilela, who died last year after a long illness.

The couple moved back to Soweto when his career started floundering. At the time of his death, Brown Dash was staying in a commune of struggling musicians in Melville. Sunday World also learnt that family members relied on relatives for transport while organising the funeral as none of them have a car of their own. When he was still the hottest property on the market, Brown Dash bought a Mini Cooper through TS Records because he wasn't creditworthy, but they confiscated it from him when he left the stable.

Our musician source says: "Brown had nothing - no house, no car - and you can imagine an artist of his status dying in a public hospital because he didn't have a medical aid. Before he died, he asked his unemployed mother to ask TS Records bosses Sbu and TK to help with funeral expenses. His mother called them on Thursday but we don't know what happened." Nciza declines to comment, saying only: "I can't speak on behalf of the family and Brown was no longer my artist."

Malinga says: "The family instructed us not to speak to the media about that, but to the family spokes- person." Family spokesperson Dudu, Brown Dash's sister, also declines to comment on the claim that the family requested artists to contribute towards his funeral. "The family instructed us not to speak in that regard until we mourn the death of our brother," she says. Sunday world