WE'VE LOST A GIANT

Loved ones pay tribute to actor and producer Shona Ferguson, whose death has sent shockwaves across SA

- NASIFA SULAIMAN

IT CAME like a bolt from the blue. Surely it couldn’t be true – he looked so fit and healthy. And he was only 47, a man in the prime of his life.

Tragically, it was true. Shona Ferguson, who’d cut his creative teeth in various soapies and gone all the way to become a leading light in the SA entertainment industry, was gone.

Covid-19 had claimed yet another life.

Shona, a strapping figure of a man with abundant tattoos and a smile that could melt hearts, spent three weeks in Johannesburg’s Netcare Milpark Hospital as his loved ones hoped and prayed he’d pull through.

But his condition deteriorated and family spokesperson Thato Matuka says Shona was transferred to intensive care where he spent about a week before he lost his fight.

“We’re devastated,” Thato says. “It’s a huge loss for the family. Sis Connie is sad, she’s in pain. She’s lost her life partner, she’s lost her friend, she’s lost her confidant, she’s lost her better half.”

Sis Connie, of course, is Connie Ferguson, the Generations star Shona was married to for nearly two decades. They would’ve celebrated their 20th anniversary in November and had plans for a joyous family celebration.

Now Connie (51) is trapped in what she calls “a horrible nightmare”.

In a heartbreaking post on Instagram she wrote, “I feel like I’m living in a twilight zone. I keep asking God why? Why Lord? Please help me understand. Please give me and my family the strength to carry on and continue our hero’s legacy.”