FASSIE MANAGER DENIES DRUG CLAIMS

The Sunday Times newspaper on Monday reacted to claims by Peter Snyman, the
late Brenda Fassie's manager, that the paper had inaccurately reported his
statements about Fassie in a story titled "Brenda Fassie poison probe".

The report said: "The Sunday Times can confirm that preliminary post-mortem
results found that Fassie had died from a drug overdose. However, an
inquest into her death has now been launched after doctors established that
the singer had died of unnatural causes."

It added that "Peter Snyman, Fassie's manager, said he had evidence that
the drugs she took had been 'tampered' with. He said there was enough
evidence to show that the crack cocaine Fassie used was laced with a lethal
rat poison ... Snyman said he and Winnie Madikizela-Mandela would ask
police to question a young woman who was known to have been close to the
singer. The woman -- not Fassie's lover, Gloria Chaka -- visited the star
at her Buccleuch home in Sandton, Johannesburg, on Sunday April 25."

In Monday's statement Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya said: "The Sunday
Times subscribes to the highest standards of accuracy and imposes the most
stringent checks on its reporting."

Snyman has now denied saying Fassie had taken drugs the night before she
was taken to hospital, or that the drugs had been tampered with.

"What we did discuss [with Sunday Times reporters] was that drug dealers
sometimes used the types of techniques described in the [newspaper] piece,"
Snyman said on Sunday.

According to the Sunday Times statement, Snyman had told the paper: "At the
moment I got information, so strong and very reliable. At the moment in
Jo'burg, there is a substance on the street, it looks like cocaine but it's
not cocaine, it's called Thai white but it's pure heroin. And if you smoke
that you die. There is a guy w=D4ho is in [a] coma right now.

"I have not done enough investigation into this thing. You know what
Nigerians do in Jo'burg? You know cocaine comes in plastic bags, they pour
half out, they fill the other half with Rattex [a rat poison] or what is
the other one -- baby powder. Out of one packet, they make two. That's how
they make their money, these guys are ruthless."

A Sunday Times reporter had asked: "Does that look like the drug that
Brenda took the night before she collapsed?"

Snyman had replied: "It could be but I was not there and I don't have the
coroner's report in front of me. I can't make, now how can I put it, I
can't confirm it or deny it. But we have a strong suspicion that her drugs
was tampered with."

The Sunday Times said Snyman phoned Chicco Twala, Brenda's producer, last
Thursday to tell him officially that he [Snyman] had discovered that the
drug that killed Brenda was laced with Rattex.

Twala told the Sunday Times on Monday that he is "just surprised that now
he [Snyman] is publicly denying everything. He told me the same story as it
appeared in the Sunday Times."

Snyman has also denied discussing with Winnie Madikizela-Mandela the matter
of the police questioning anybody.

"What I did say was we would like to speak to the person who was with her
the night before she died, to shed some light on what happened," he said.

However, Snyman had reportedly told the Sunday Times: "Gloria [Chaka,
Fassie's lover] is not the person I want investigated. There is another
person who came to the house and spent the night there. I won't give you
names but that is the girl I would want questioned because I told Mama
Winnie about it and she is looking into it. Because that girl, the next day
when she came to the hospital, she could not look me in the face, she just
ran away when she saw me.

"We suspect a foul play. We are busy looking into that, I cannot make
allegations in newspapers just in case it is not true, that girl can sue
the shit out of me. Look, we discussed it with Mama Winnie, after the
funeral, we will question this girl and if we think there is something, we
will report it."

Snyman also claims he has not seen any post-mortem report.

"To the best of my knowledge, no one, not even the family, has seen the
report."

But, according to the newspaper statement, he had said: "I have the report
because I have the power of attorney. It was released to me sometime this
week. Her death is drug-related, that's off the record, we agree? If, I
understand it correctly, it [all has] to do with all the drugs she has been
taking over the years.

"But I am not a doctor, so I cannot tell you exactly what killed her. Phone
Sunninghill hospital and speak to Dr Ballhausen, if you are lucky she can
read you the report. I cannot give you the copy of the report, I am in Cape
Town right now and I would be back in Jo'burg on Wednesday -- the report is
at my house. Why can't you phone the family, they also have the report."