A HIV positive South African singer who was suffering from anal cancer has died, the musician surrendered to a battle with cancer yesterday at Groote Schuur hospital in Cape Town.
Before he died the 36-year-old gay socialite had confirmed that the anal cancer he was diagnosed with in 2012 has returned. In the recent past Bala has staged a brave fight against cancer and had been diagnosed HIV positive. Speaking to the publication, Bala said: “I went for chemotherapy for six weeks and a radiation programme two years ago, but the cancer came back severely.”
Bala, best known as a member of defunct gay trio 3Sum, in 2012 underwent an operation to remove piles. He was, however, following tests told that he didn’t have piles, but cancer. He was at the time treated with radiation and chemotherapy for six weeks, but his doctors recently referred him to physicians at the Victoria Hospital in Cape Town, where he will have surgery in the coming weeks.
“I was referred to Cape Town to do the operation by doctors in Johannesburg. The doctors told me they were surprised [I had the cancer] because it is something that is more prevalent in women,” he explained. Bala was diagnosed with cancer a few months after he publicly admitted that he was HIV positive, a period in which he also lost his mother to a stroke.
Until his death, he has been living with the pains of the cancer for years and, according to close associates, he battled long and had trusted that God could heal him.
He once told a magazine that he was stronger that his HIV.
“HIV won’t be the end of me ... I am HIV-positive and as a celebrity and someone who is openly gay it is important to come out.
I want to use my bubbly personality to help those struggling to come to terms with their status and instil a sense of hope.”
A month before he died, precisely on February 13, 2016, Bala had tweeted:
“I pray to God every day to pass this cancer. It’s hard, it pains, I’ll win this battle, I won’t give up. I can’t sleep of pain.”
Speaking for the family longtime friend and housemate Ephraim “Ephymol” Molingoana told Sowetan Live that Bala always kept a positive outlook and remained strong throughout his illness. “We are devastated and in state of disbelief,” he said. The flamboyant 37-year-old was a member of ‘bubblegum pop’ group 3Sum along with Jeff Moyo and Amstel Maboa. Bala had hinted at a comeback to the music scene when he posted a picture in studio captioned “Let’s go back to the beat”.
Maboa is now the only remaining member of the group as Bala’s death follows that of Jeff Moyo who was laid to rest in 2010.
May his soul rest in peace. Amen.
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