Gospel star dies after asking to be discharged

Before he died on Friday afternoon, gospel artist Siyabulela Maawu – popularly known as M-Siya – warned through a Facebook message he posted on Thursday that he would die unless he was moved out of Tambo Memorial Hospital in Boksburg.

He subsequently died just when his family arrived at the hospital to take him home, according to family spokesperson Sivuyile Paliso.

Paliso confirmed Maawu’s troubling Facebook message in which he sent an ominous message, warning that he saw himself dying if he were to be kept any longer at the Ekurhuleni public facility formerly known as Boksburg-Benoni Hospital. 

"He posted the message on Thursday and after seeing the post, we called him and he just said he wanted himself out of the facility. We were touched and began engaging with the hospital to arrange for his release, but were told that he stopped breathing while we were in the premises preparing his paperwork," said Paliso yesterday.

Paliso said the first thing the family did on Friday when they arrived at the hospital was to go and see him.

"He was fine, all chatting and happy to see us. But shockingly, after 15 minutes of leaving him to organise an oxygen machine that we could take home, we were told he was no more."

Paliso said there was no explanation from the hospital for Maawu’s death .

"They just told us that he stopped breathing." 

He said M-Siya was admitted to the hospital after his blood pressure was found to be very high. After a week of heightened blood pressure, the family begged him to go to hospital because he was also diabetic. 

"We had to beg him to stay at the hospital. And when I saw that post, I just thought it was because he really hated hospitals. I didn't think he was really going to leave us," Paliso added.

He said the family is still in shock, and that preparations for the musician's funeral were already underway.

"He is going to be laid to rest at his home in Mpumalanga, at Mhluzi, Middelburg,” according to Paliso.

M-Siya’s  'Ndizobona Amanxeba' took his music career to a greater level as it took SA by storm when it was released in 2016. He was later nominated for Best Song of the Year at the Crown Gospel Awards. 

His wife Amanda said she would like her husband to be remembered for how he loved her, recalling how the couple met “in a lift at Hillbrow 18 years ago".

"It was love at first sight. I greeted him and told him he was good looking. I couldn't hold myself, he was mine already," recalled Amanda.

Amanda said they became friends until Maawu confessed his “undying love” for her. "In 2016, he proposed and I said ‘yes’. The bond grew so much that even in his sickness I was always with him.

"He became diabetic in 2014 and I made sure he took his medication and [attended] check-ups all the time. I loved him so much that I would get sick whenever he was not well." 

She said her husband was a funny person who always cracked jokes everywhere he was.

"He loved God, he loved singing and he was my prayer partner, he left me too soon …”

Amanda said they battled to have children for over 11 years of their relationship, but he always managed to keep her positive. 

Before he died, Amanda said Maawu called her at 2am on Friday and asked her to come to the hospital.

"I had arranged everything for his homecoming. I woke up early and went to look for an oxygen tank, so that he could use it at home because he had made it clear that he wanted to come home. Little did I know that he was leaving me.”

Amanda said her husband died shortly after she left his hospital room to sign him out of the hospital.

"He waited for me and I'm humbled because he died in my presence."

His family said they were looking forward to his album that was going to be released later this month. M-Siya had just celebrated his 40th birthday.

A friend to the couple Ndumi Gingilizwa said the star's wife has been left shattered by the passing of her best friend. "They were always together, even when I needed help late at night, they always came through. They are very helpful people,” Gingilizwa. 

Health spokesperson Kwara Kekana said the patient was brought to the hospital on August 19.

"On August 20, his condition worsened and the clinical team discussed that the patient needed [to go into] ICU," said Kekana. 

Kekana said the family was called to come to the hospital and said the family was at the facility when their relative died.

"They were counselled," Kekana said.

"The hospital [did] not received any complaint from the patient during his stay at the hospital or from the family, " Kekana added.