Tears flow in studio for Simba

03 February 2015 - 02:19 By Andile Ndlovu
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YOUNG LION: Simba Mhere might have gone to the US to play varsity football if he hadn't been accepted onto Top Billing in 2010. File photo
YOUNG LION: Simba Mhere might have gone to the US to play varsity football if he hadn't been accepted onto Top Billing in 2010. File photo
Image: Sunday Times

As preparations for the memorial services and funerals of Top Billing presenter Simba Mhere and his friend Kady-Shay O'Bryan continued, Mhere's boss, Basetsana Kumalo, and his peers yesterday paid tribute to the presenter on 3 Talk.

It was announced that a memorial service would be held at the Rhema Church in Randburg northern Johannesburg, on Thursday and that Mhere would be buried at Westpark Cemetery on Saturday.

But there was not a dry eye in the Top Billing studio as his colleagues Lorna Maseko, Ursula Chikane, Bonang Matheba, Maps Maponyane and Jonathan Boynton-Lee reminisced about his "best bear hugs", his "mack game", his chivalrous nature and his professionalism.

Boynton-Lee said Mhere "will be really angry right now that we're crying".

The 26-year-old television personality and O'Bryan were killed in a car crash in Johannesburg on Saturday, which Mhere's father, Joseph, survived.

Kumalo, the executive producer of Top Billing, called into 3 Talk and told host Noeleen Maholwana-Sangqu: "I'm at Simba's home. I've spent the last two days with his family and words cannot begin to describe the depth of their pain.

"It's very traumatic but we have to keep strong because I think that's what Simba would have wanted."

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