Nhlanhla Mafu, one-half of the Afro-pop music duo Mafikizolo, has gone deaf.
Mafu is currently undergoing treatment to restore her hearing ability which has been deteriorating over the years.
She is using assistive listening devices to help her hear words when people speak.
The South African songbird opened up about suffering from hearing loss in a snippet of a video shared on social media where she consults with an audiologist from LS Audiology Hearing & Balance.
“I’m doing this for my own good. I needed to do it because the longer I let it go, the longer my hearing keeps getting worse and worse and worse,” she said.
Mafu confessed that she was embarrassed going public about losing her hearing ability
“When I have interviews and, you know, I’m with my partner Theo, and he always has to repeat the question, and even when I’m sometimes just chilling with friends, sometimes I would just laugh without even knowing what people are laughing about or be agreeable basically to everything because I can’t hear. I was really embarrassed to just say that, you know, I’m having this problem until I realised that I’m doing this for my own good,” she said.
Mafu shot to fame across the continent years ago after Mafikizolo emerged as one of the foremost singing group in Africa.
Mafikizolo is a South African Afro-pop music duo formed in 1996, consisting of composer Theo Kgosinkwe and Mafu as the lead singer..
The duo’s most viral song was ‘Khona’ which became an anthem in South Africa and outside the country’s borders.
