Johannes Kerkorrel

Born: Ralph John Rabie: 1960. Died 12 November 2002

Cape Town – South African music icon Johannes Kerkorrel is dead. He hanged himself.  Provincial police spokesperson William Reid confirmed that “Ralph John Rabie, aged 42, was found hanging from a tree in the Kleinmond area, about 3km outside Kleinmond at around 12:40 on Tuesday”.  According to friends close to the Rabie family (who wished not to be named) this was exactly the way a former lover of the music icon took his life some years ago.
Cape Town – “I hope you can forgive me, Mom, I really do not have the strength to carry on. I pray that the Lord will forgive me and that you will be able to understand and accept as time goes by.”  This was the last wish of Ralph Rabie, better known as Johannes Kerkorrel, expressed in a letter written to his mother before he committed suicide in a forested area, 5km outside Kleimond, on Tuesday.   He told her there was no other way.   Rabie wrote the letter on Saturday, three days before his death. He also left letters for his partner and the police.  To his partner Demetrios Demetriou he wrote: “I do not have any other option. I am in such a deep state of depression that I see no future for myself.”  In a letter to the police, Kerkorrel admitted that he could no longer pay his bills and that he had no work for the next two months.  ~Jacob Rooi