FIVE men are set to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, charged with the killing of reggae star Lucky Dube, police said Sunday.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2007/10/19/mtukudzi_sings_a_song_of_survival/?page=1

In the 27 years since the hard-fought overthrow of white minority Rhodesian rule, Zimbabwe has tumbled from an exalted symbol of African liberation to an exhibit of almost all that could possibly go wrong. A paranoid regime in the grip of an aging president and his cronies, and hunger and shortages in an agrarian country once seen as a regional breadbasket, are just two symptoms of a crisis whose human cost is exacerbated by rampaging HIV. The latest disaster is the onset of hyperinflation, with prices rising at a nearly unimaginable annual rate of 5,000 percent or more.

The South African Press Association is reporting that the South African reggae super star Lucky Dube has been shot dead. The report says he was killed in a hijacking in Rosettenville, a suburb of Johannesburg.

Captain Cheryl Engelbrecht said the incident took place around 8.20pm when the singer and performer was driving a blue Polo in the Johannesburg suburb. She said Dube was dropping off his son in the area when he was attacked. "His son was already out of the car. When he saw what was happening, he ran to ask for help." The hijackers were still at large.

The boy was too traumatised to provide police with any detailed information, Engelbrecht said.

http://www.clickafrique.com/Magazine/ST010/CP0000002559.aspx

Friday, October 5, 2007; Page WE09

SOME OF THE GENTLEST music singer-guitarist Oliver Mtukudzi has released outside his native Zimbabwe, "Tsimba Itsoka" emphasizes rippling guitar, pattering rhythms and lilting harmonies. This Afropop flirts with lounge jazz, especially on the songs that feature the saxophone of Samson Mtukudzi, the band leader's son. For those listeners who don't understand Shona, such serenely sensuous numbers as "Kuipedza" could simply be easy listening. Even the livelier ones, such as the album-closing "Kumirira Nekumirira," are more insinuating than assertive.