Zahara dead – Afro-pop singer who featured on BBC’s 100 Women list dies age 35 after long battle with alcoholism

POP singer Zahara has died at the age of 35 after suffering with liver problems from years of alcohol abuse.

The self-taught Afro-pop artist, who featured on the BBC's 100 Women list, died at a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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Bulelwa Mkutukana first found fame in 2011 with album Loliwe before she was included in the Beeb's list of influential women.

She was a self-taught guitarist who won album of the year for Loliwe at the South African Music awards.

And Zahara even performed one of the album's songs for Nelson Mandela in 2013 before his death.

The 35-year-old battled alcoholism for years and was hospitalised last month before her death on Monday.

South Africa's Culture Minister Zizi Kodwa announced Zahara's death and said the government had been helping her family for "some time now".

He said: "I am very saddened by the passing of Zahara.

"My deepest condolences to the Mkutukana family and the South African music industry.

"Government has been with the family for some time now. Zahara and her guitar made an incredible and lasting impact in South African music."

The singer's manager confirmed she had been hospitalised last month with "physical pains".

Her sister said in a heartbreaking statement in 2019: "If Zahara continues drinking, she is going to die.

"We are making sure that there is always someone around her to monitor her so that she doesn't start drinking again."

Zahara was involved in activism alongside her music, as she campaigned for an end to violence against women in South Africa.

She described the violence as a "pandemic" in the country after a man attacked her with pepper spray in his car.

She told the BBC: "Men feel like they are entitled to women, like women are theirs.

"Men in South Africa, all they care about is them."