Former Democratic Alliance (DA) president, Helen Zille left mzansi stunned when she showed off her carefree side in a now-viral video, of her singing one of Brenda Fassie’s popular songs, Vuli Ndlela.
The 74-year-old South African politician ushered her birthday weekend by singing one of the iconic Xhosa songs which had her struggling with clicks and pronunciation, leaving a bitter taste in some of the internet users’ tongues.
Released in 1997, Vuli Ndlela translates to ‘make way’ and was one of the hitmakers released by the iconic Brenda Fassie, the song is usually played at wedding ceremonies or in other celebrations, as per the song’s context ‘make way you gossiping neighbours, my son is getting married today’. Brenda, who hailed from Kwa Langa, Cape Town produced back-to-back hits such as Memeza, Weekend Special, Too Late For Mama among other chart-toppers.
The video shared by Helen attracted over half a million views, and over 60 thousand likes.
Helen recently took to her TikTok page to share a snippet of her singing, with a caption that read: “Ushering in my birthday weekend.”
@helenzille?? Ushering in my birthday weekend.♬ original sound – Helen Zille
Reacting to the video in the comments, One TikTok user said: “Chommie awusifuni and siyayazi but uthanda uku actor (friend you hate us and we know, you just like acting).”
She responded with: “Urongo Chommie (you are wrong friend). No one can make me hate you, Tumi.”
Another one said: “This is the second worst thing to happen to Brenda Fassie.”
While another one said: “Mind you, this person has lived in South Africa all her life. The song by Brenda was released in 1997. Helen has never cared to learn the actual lyrics in 20 years.”
And another TikTok user said: “I’m impressed Helen.”
