| Muzi Clive Ngwenya killed by smoke |
When promising actor Muzi Clive Ngwenya was found dead at his mother's Johannesburg home, his body was covered in soot and a T-shirt was over his face. It is believed the shirt was used by Ngwenya in an attempt to cover his mouth and nose as he inhaled smoke from a TV set alight during a heavy electrical storm. He was woken by the storm but appears to have been unable to get out of the house and died of smoke inhalation. At a memorial service yesterday, family spokesman Xolani Qubeka told a packed room of friends, family and industry peers of the horror of finding the 29-year-old dead. Ngwenya's mother, Agnes, and his brother, Keith, sat motionless in the front row in the room at Atlas Park Studios, in Milpark. Qubeka dealt with speculative reports on social networks about the death, saying: "There are these people who made all these claims yet they hadn't even visited the family. It was difficult having to approach his mother after people had made such claims". It had been suggested that Ngwenya had burned to death. Qubeka said: "When I walked into the room Muzi was in, it was dark with soot, and he was lying on the floor with a T-shirt covering his face. It looked like he was trying to save himself from the smoke - he was trapped." Friends told of a jovial up-and-coming talent who had recently signed a contract to appear in a TV series starring celebrated playwright and actor John Kani. Ngwenya appears in the yet-to-be released movie Winnie, and had a reality TV show called This Is Us in the pipeline. Scandal! actor Kagiso Modupe, Generations' Jafta Mamabolo, Ngwenya's judge on Class Act and veteran actor Rapulana Seiphemo, and Zone 14 actors Neo Ntlatleng and Samkelo Ndlovu, attended the service.
He had one daughter, Nevana.
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