'Rhythm City' star Brian 'Bruno' Majola has died

Actor and kwaito star Brian “Bruno” Majola has died. 

His former cast mate, actor Zola Hashatsi, was inconsolable when confirming the news with TshisaLIVE on Tuesday, saying a statement had yet to be released. 

He took to Instagram to share a tribute to the late star.

“Angikho Grand. How dare you Bruno Jamshack #RIPBruno I am heart broken and in tears. Angeke bafwethu,” he wrote. 

His cause of death was not revealed at the time of publishing this article.

Brian was popular for his breakout role as Bongani on soapie Rhythm City. He later appeared on Ekasi Stories and Inkaba.

His biography, found on his personal Facebook page, reads:

Raised by a single parent in Dube, Soweto, without the presence of his father and in search of a father figure, Bruno acted up as most teenagers do.

He chose crime as his outlet of how he felt and what he was going through. His actions resulted with him finding Leeukop prison as his new home in his early teens. Sentence to six years in jail the feisty juvenile found himself spending most of his childhood behind bars.

Even during his time in jail Bruno found it hard to be remorseful at first and would spend time behind bars in isolation. During isolation was where the growing teenager would discover his love for writing and music. At Leeukop prison he joined a group of musicians from inside prison and slowly started upon his journey towards rehabilitation.

Before his release from prison Bruno had formed a duo with former inmate Fistos and thus Gumshev was born. As Gumshev they approached Lance Stehr of Ghetto Ruff, who would meet up with them upon their release and unleash the reality of their dreams.

Gumshev’s debut album “Straight Out Of Prison” would be their first offering to the music industry after nine months out of prison. The album was filled with their life lessons from their experiences and compacted with their talents. With Fistos' guitar skills and Bruno’s vocal skills, the two dished up tracks like “Hosh”, “Temptations” and “Matha”.

The nature of the album and their life stories landed them positions as facilitators and headline performers at the Cape Town Youth Festival 2007, with them reaching over 20,000 youth from the Cape Town and surrounding areas of the Western Cape. 

Gumshev’s career went from strength to strength as they performed alongside some of SA’s legendary and mainstream artist with the likes of Malik, Amu, Pro Kid, DJ Cleo, Zola, Ishmael, Bongani Fassie, Drenko and many more. They even got to share a stage with international star Keith Murray on his visit to SA.

Bruno went on to pursue his solo career and explore his other talents further, which include public speaking, motivational speaking and facilitating.