He was shot dead in front of his children during an attempted car hijacking while dropping his children off in the suburb of Rosettenville.

Police say three shots were fired through a car window killing the singer.

An outspoken critic of Apartheid and a hugely respected musician internationally, the wider music community is as shocked as his fellow South Africans.

Johannesburg’s grim reputation for violence has sadly once more proved deserved.

Dube released his first reggae album in 1986 Rastas Never Die, which was banned by the censors in South Africa. He was breaking new ground as an African reggae artist, challenging his audience and even his record company, who had been marketing him as a straight-up Zulu mbaqanga musician — which he had been up until then.

Within a year his 1987 album Slave was setting records for South African music by selling 500,000 copies and attracting international attention. And since then a steady stream of albums have been released including his final album Respect