South Africa is to blame for breaking Lundi, says close friend

Lundi Tyamara's close friend Sindile Simama has lashed out at the nation for believing the negative reports about the gospel star, saying that this contributed to turning Lundi into a "broken man".

Lundi's turbulent past was once again thrown into the spotlight after his death last Friday morning, with reports about the star's alcohol abuse and drug addiction resurfacing.

A fuming Sindile, told mourners at Lundi's memorial at Grace Bible Church in Soweto on Tuesday that his friend died a broken man because of the reports.

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"He was fragile. No one could survive 20 years of torture and not break. He did break and tried to cover it up but when I had one-to-ones with him you could see the brokenness in him," Sindile said.

Sindile added that Lundi was often scared and refused to sleep alone or without the light on.

"These are the things that we have done to him as a country. Today we cry and say 'why has God taken him away?' Are we crying because we don't have any one to ridicule anymore? Are we crying because we don't have anything more to laugh at? South Africa we are at fault. We cannot lie to ourselves and pretend we never did damage to this boy. We did. Lundi was a broken man because of us," Sindile added.

He told mourners that he felt they were "mourning a stranger".

"South Africa didn't know Lundi. They knew the Lundi the media sold to them for 20 years; it was a lie and they bought it. Everyone is not perfect, we have weaknesses but they chose to show that side of him," he said.

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Sindile said that Lundi was made to believe that he was worthless, when he meant so much to his friends and family.

"Lundi was kind and caring. He was made to believe that he was nothing when he meant everything to us. He lifted us up when we were down. He saw our hope when we thought there was no hope. That was the Lundi I knew...but that was not the Lundi you knew," Sindile said.