The father of music legend Taliep Petersen has passed away.
Mogamat Ladien Petersen, 91, died peacefully at his Manenberg home after 4pm on Friday, due to natural causes.
Ladien is survived by 11 children, his 77-year-old wife, 30 grandchildren and 42 great-grandchildren.
Daughter Maatoema Groenmeyer says her father had gone into a deep depression after losing his second son on 18 May.
Farouk Petersen was Ladien’s youngest son and died of a heart attack.
“My daddy just went to bed that day and soon after he suffered from depression. I think he died of a broken heart because he never got better after my brother died,” says Maatoema.
She says her father never had any chronic illnesses and wasn’t a sickly person: “My father was a healthy man, the doctor said he died of natural causes, but it could be his old age.”
On Friday, neighbours gathered outside the Aletta Court home to bid farewell to their eldest resident.
Maatoema says they couldn’t bury her father on Friday due to the lockdown curfew of 10pm.
She tells the Daily Voice that it was her father’s wish to be buried in the same grave as his own dad at Mowbray Cemetery.
But instead, he was buried next to Taliep and Farouk at the Johnson Road Cemetery in Athlone due to lockdown curfew rules, as well as the Mowbray Cemetery being closed on Saturday for Eid.
Taliep's daughter Jawaahier Petersen said her oupa was a legend who rubbed off on her dad since childhood.
"Boeya was a music man, he also had a klopse troupe called "Dark Town Strutters", my father's first ever performance was at the age of six years old singing for the troupe," she says.
"My Boeya was the epitome of style, he was always in a suit and tie. He was a hard man, not one to share emotionally. He had a presence and will be sorely missed."
Maatoema says her father hard-working man en sy hande het vir niks verkeerd gestaan het nie.
"My dad was a taxi driver since we can remember, he stopped work at 50 years old because Taliep wanted to look after him financially.
"My dad was our jack of all trades, it's that simple, he fixed anything we needed to be fixed.
"He could do anything," she says, while also praising her father's gardening skills, "he planted all the trees that bore fruits on our grounds."