Usha wins over South Africa, 25 years after bowling over Nelson Mandela

BY A STAFF REPORTER

The legendary South African singer Miriam Makeba is her idol. Twenty five years earlier, when she last toured South Africa, she touched the feet of the iconic Nelson Mandela to pay her traditional rest. 

Singing sensation Usha Uthup enthralled the South African audience with her songs and wit and tit and bits of nostalgia on a whirlwind tour of South Africa. 

She performed in Durban on Saturday and Johannesburg on Sunday. ``Mandela helped me meet my idol Miriam Makeba. What a woman, what a singer !,'' she shared with her audience. 

Uthup said she had been singing Makeba's internationally hit 'Patta Patta' song, which literally means 'touch touch' in the indigenous Xhosa language, for many years before meeting her.