The late Afrikaans rocker Johannes Kerkorrel, veteran producer Sizwe Zako and XiTsonga artist Thomas Chauke will be honoured with lifetime achievement awards at the South African Music Awards on May 10.
Kerkorrel - real name Ralph John Rabie - was an icon of the alternative Afrikaans music scene that sprang up during the 1980s as popular resistance to apartheid gathered momentum.
He died in 2002, at the age of 42. Before becoming a musician, he worked as a journalist on the Afrikaans-language weekly newspaper Rapport.
Sizwe Zako has worked with musicians such as Rebecca Malope, the late Vuyo Mokoena, Ebony, Pastor Khaya Mayedwa and Peter Mokoena.
"If anybody can be credited with harnessing the genre of gospel music in Mzansi - which has exploded like showers of blessings - it is Sizwe Zako," the organisers said.
In a career spanning over 32 years, Thomas Chauke has released over 30 albums which earned him cumulative sales in excess of two million and more South African Music Awards in the Tsonga Traditional category than any other musician.
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