Veteran SABC Xhosa newsreader and producer Linda Gqomfa has died.

by Thinus Ferreira

The veteran former SABC Xhosa newsreader and producer Linda Gqomfa is dead after a brief illness.

Linda Gqomfa died on Saturday and the cause of death is not know.

Linda Gqomfa previously worked as a Xhosa news bulletin reader for the South African public broadcaster's TV news as well as its Umhlobo Wenene FM radio station as a news reader but was also a producer for children and female-focused programming for many years. 

Later she worked as a communication officer for the South African Police service.

South Africa's department of sport, arts and culture in a statement said that it sends "heartfelt condolences to the family of veteran SABC news reader Linda Gqomfa".

Linda Gqomfa studied and qualified as a teacher, decided to study further to become a nurse but never finished and then got a part-time job in 1972 at the then Radio Xhosa doing a children's programme, Qashiqashi.

Linda Gqomfa left Radio Xhosa in 1982 to go and work at the SABC's children and female programming division.

She left the SABC 2 years later in 1984 to go into teaching.

In 1988 Linda Gqomfa returned to the SABC and the SABC News division as a Xhosa news reader for the Xhosa news on the then TV2 channel.

Besides being a Xhosa TV and radio newsreader Linda Gqomfa also became a producer of children and female-focused programming at the SABC and left in 2002 to join the South African police where she became part of the visible policing department, working in the Social Crime Prevention division. She retired from the police service in 2012.

In an interview with the I'zolezwe Xhosa newspaper in October 2019 she revealed that years ago she had written several long-form stories that she wish she could have adapted for television.

"I wish I could translate them for TV before I die but I will be tired and self-conscious and I will stop," she said.