Thandi Klaasen (née Mpambane) died on January 15, 2017.

She was a jazz musician from Sophiatown, Gauteng.

Klaasen was the mother of singer Lorraine Klaasen.

She grew up in Sophiatown, the daughter of a shoemaker and a domestic worker.

As a teenager, she was attacked with acid and her face was permanently scarred.

Klaasen’s career as a singer and dancer began in the mid-1950s.

During 1961, Klaasen moved to London to work in the musical King Kong.

Klaasen performed with Dolly Rathebe, Miriam Makeba, Dorothy Masuka, and others.

Thandi Klaasen died from pancreatic cancer.